A  MEMOIR 


OF    THE 


REVEREND  SYDIEY  SMITH. 

I 

BY    UTS    DAUGHTER, 

LADY    HOLLAND 

WITH 

A  SELECTION  FROM  HIS  LETTERS, 

EDITED    BY 

MRS.    AUSTIN. 

IN     TWO     VOLUMES. 

VOL.  I. 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN     S  Q  U  A  U  K. 

1855. 


THIS    MEMOIR    OF   MV    FATHER, 
THE    PREPARATION    FOR   WHICH    WAS    THE    CONSTANT 

OCCUPATION   OF    MY  MOTHER'S   LIFE, 
AND   THE   COMPLETION   OF   WHICH   WAS   THE   MOST  EARNEST 

OBJECT   OF   HER    DESIRE, 

BOTH   IN   HER    LIFE    AND   AT   HER   DEATH, 
WHICH  NOTHING  BUT  HER  EARNEST  DESIRE  COULD  HAVE 

GIVEN  ME  COURAGE  TO  ATTEMPT, 
I   NOW   DEDICATE   TO   HER   MEMORY, 

BELIEVING    IT 

TO   BE  THE   MOST   GRATEFUL   TRIBUTE   I   CAN   OFFER 
ON    HER    GRAVE. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 


SYDNEY  SMITH'S  Life :  lie  who  opens  this  book  under 
the  expectation  of  reading  in  it  curious  adventures,  im 
portant  transactions,  or  public  events,  had  better  close 
the  volume,  for  none  of  these  things  will  he  find  therein. 

Nothing  can  be  more  thoroughly  private  and  event 
less  than  the  narrative  I  am  about  to  give ;  yet  I  feel 
myself,  and  I  have  reason  to  believe  there  are  many  who 
will  feel  with  me,  that  this  Life  is  not  therefore  uninter 
esting  or  unimportant :  for,  though  circumstances  over 
which  my  father  had  no  control  forbade  his  taking  that 
active  share  in  the  affairs  of  his  country,  for  which  his 
talents  and  his  character  so  eminently  fitted  him,  yet 
neither  circumstances  nor  power  could  suppress  these 
talents,  or  subdue  and  enfeeble  that  character ;  and  I 
believe  I  may  assert,  without  danger  of  contradiction, 
that  by  them,  and  the  use  he  has  made  of  them,  he  has 
earned  for  himself  a  place  among  the  great  men  of  his 
time  and  country. 

Such  being  the  case,  however,  his  talents,  and  the 
employment  of  them,  are  alone  before  the  world.  This 
is  but  half1  the  picture,  and  I  believe  few  who  have 
known  so  much  do  not  wish  to  know  more. 

The  mode  of  life,  the  heart,  the  habits,  the  thoughts 
and  feelings,  the  conversation,  the  home,  the  occupa 
tions  of  such  a  man — all,  in  short,  which  can  give  life 
and  reality  to  the  picture — are  as  yet  wanting ;  and  it 
is  to  endeavor  to  supply  this  want  that  I  have  ventured 
to  undertake  this  task. 

It  is  always  more  difficult  to  write  the  lifo  of  a  pri- 


iv  PREFACE. 

vate  than  of  a  public  man.  There  are  many  things 
likewise  which  make  that  of  my  father  a  peculiarly 
difficult  one  to  delineate  5  and  I  should  shrink  from  the 
task  I  have  undertaken,  from  the  fear  of  not  doing  it 
justice,  had  not  death  made  such  fearful  havoc  among 
his  early  contemporaries,  and  those  best  fitted  to  do  jus 
tice  to  his  memory ;  and  age,  business,  or  health,  placed 
insuperable  obstacles  in  the  way  of  alt  those  abler  pens 
which  both  my  mother  and  I  had  once  hoped  might  un 
dertake  it. 

I  therefore,  from  these  causes,  and  in  accordance  with 
my  mother's  most  earnest  desire,  repeated  in  her  will, 
that  some  record  of  his  virtues  should  be  written,  ven 
ture  to-  give  to  the  public  these  recollections  of  my  fa 
ther,  which  I  had  previously  been  collecting  for  some 
years  solely  for  myself  and  my  children,  together  with 
numerous  contributions  from  various  friends. 

With  these  materials,  illustrating  the  selection  of  his 
letters,  which  my  friend  Mrs.  Austin  has  kindly  under 
taken  to  edit,  I  trust  to  lay  before  the  public  such  a 
record  of  my  father's  character,  as  a  son,  a  clergyman,  a 
father,  a  husband,  and  a  friend,  as  may  be  deemed  by 
them  not  unworthy  of  the  reputation  he  has  already  ac 
quired  for  talent  and  honesty  by  his  writings. 

If  I  succeed,  I  shall  have  accomplished  the  object  I 
have  most  at  heart.  If  I  fail,  I  trust  that  with  many 
my  motive  will  be  some  excuse ;  and  that  they  will  at 
tribute  it  to  the  inability  and  inexperience  of  his  advo 
cate,  and  not  to  the  weakness  of  the  cause. 

In  giving  these  annals  of  my  father's  life,  the  object 
has  been,  as  much  as  possible,  to  make  him  speak  for 
himself,  even  where  (as  in  some  few  instances)  a  por 
tion  of  them  have  already  appeared  before  the  public ; 
as  these  extracts  serve  to  weave  together  the  rest  of  the 
narrative,  and  are  of  course  far  better  than  any  thing  I 
could  put  in  their  place. 


PREFACE.  v 

The  points  which  can  alone  justify  the  publication  of 
these  recollections  and  letters  are,  that  they  shall  neither 
hurt  the  living,  injure  the  dead,  or  impair  the  reputation 
of  their  author.  These  objects  we  have  endeavored 
most  strenuously  to  keep  in  view.  There  is  little  in 
the  Avhole  work  that  could  give  pain,  even  if  every  par 
ticular  were  understood.  Most  of  the  persons  alluded 
to  have  been  long  since  dead,  and  the  allusions  for 
gotten.  Yet,  should  there  be,  in  either  the  letters  or 
the  narrative,  any  anecdote  accidentally  preserved  which 
may  meet  the  eye  of  those  who,  from  intimacy  with 
him,  or  from  having  been  present  at  the  scene  described, 
could  lift  the  vail  that  has  been  purposely  thrown  over 
it,  let  me  here  entreat  them,  if  they  loved  my  father  in 
life,  and  honor  his  memory  in  death,  never,  by  their 
explanations,  to  make  the  pen  of  Sydney  Smith  do  in 
death  what  it  never  did  in  life — inflict  undeserved  pain 
on  any  human  being. 

I  must  add,  with  respect  to  the  letters  collected  from 
various  sources,  that  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  as  testify 
ing  the  estimation  in  which  my  father  was  held  by  his 
contemporaries,  that  there  are  among  them  many  small 
notes  merely  containing  some  trifling  message  or  an  in 
vitation  to  dinner;  things  without  the  slightest  merit 
or  value  in  themselves,  yet  carefully  folded  up,  dated, 
and  preserved  with  the  greatest  care  for  years  by  those 
who  had  received  them  from  him.  This  little  trait 
speaks,  I  think,  volumes.  From  these  letters  Mrs. 
Austin  has  selected  those  most  calculated  to  interest 
the  reader,  or  in  any  way  to  illustrate  my  father's  feel 
ings  and  character,  without  special  reference  to  their 
talent  only. 

It  will  be  seen  in  the  narrative,  and,  in  justice  to  my 
father,  it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten,  that  he  entered  the 
Church  out  of  consideration  for,  and  in  obedience  to, 
the  wishes  of  hip  father:  mid  like  his  friend,  Dr,  Stan- 


vi  PREFACE. 

ley,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  with  a  strong  natural  bias  to 
ward  another  profession  ;  so  that,  in  his  passage  through 
life,  he  had  often  to  exercise  control  over  himself,  and 
to  make  a  struggle  to  do  that  which  is  comparatively 
easy  to  those  who  have  embraced  their  profession  from 
taste  and  inclination  alone. 

But  having  entered  the  Church  from  a  sense  of  duty, 
I  think  the  narrative  will  show  that  he  made  duty  his 
guide  through  life ;  that  he  honored  his  profession,  and 
was  honored  in  it  by  those  who  had  the  best  opportuni 
ties  of  observing  him ;  that,  ever  ready  to  perform  its 
humblest  duties,  he  gathered  (as  he  says)  from  the  study 
of  the  Bible,  that  the  highest  duty  of  a  clergyman  was 
to  calm  religious  hatreds,  and  spread  religious  peace  and 
toleration ;  that  in  this  labor  of  love  he  exerted  himself 
from  the  time  of  his  entering  the  Church  to  the  hour  of 
his  death ;  and  that  he  dreaded,  as  the  greatest  of  all 
x  evils,  that  the  "golden  chain,"  which  he  describes  as 
"reaching  from  earth  to  heaven,"  should  be  injured 
either  by  fanaticism  or  skepticism.  Thus,  lending  him 
self  to  no  extremes  and  no  party  in  the  Church,  he  en 
deavored  through  life  to  guard  religion  simple  and  pure, 
as  we  received  it  from  the  hand  of  God,  and  as  it  is 
taught  in  that  Church  to  which  he  belonged. 

It  now  only  remains  for  me  to  express  my  thanks  to 
those  who  have  aided  my  task  by  their  contributions, 
which  I  should  gladly  have  done  by  name,  had  they  not 
been  too  numerous.  But  it  has  been  deeply  gratifying 
to  my  feelings,  and  has  given  me  courage  to  proceed,  to 
find  that  all  my  father's  oldest  friends  have  been  eager 
to  assist  me  in  my  task,  and  have  all,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  contributed  something  toward  it.  I  trust 
they  may  not  think  I  have  misused  their  gifts,  and,  for 
the  sake  of  the  father,  will  receive  with  indulgence  the 
efforts  of  his  daughter  to  do  fresh  honor  to  his  memory 
by  chronicling  his  virtues. 


PREFACE.  vii 

This  slight  sketch  of  my  father's  life  has  passed 
through  the  ordeal  of  his  private  friends,  and  has  been 
pronounced  by  them  to  present  a  faithful  picture  of  his 
habits  and  character.  The  subject  of  it  is  of  course  so 
deeply  interesting  to  me,  that  I  can  form  no  estimate  of 
what  it  may  be  to  others ;  but  I  am  encouraged  by  these 
friends  to  believe  that  the  life  of  an  honest  man  honestly 
told,  can  never  be  without  some  value  and  interest  to 
every  one.  In  deference  therefore  to  their  opinions  I 
now  offer  this  Memoir  to  the  public,  with  some  additions 
and  such  corrections  as  I  have  been  able  to  make; 
though  I  fear  there  may  still  remain  many  errors  as  to 
time,  inevitable  in  a  narrative  written  (as  this  is  chiefly) 
from  memory,  and  with  but  few  data  to  guide  me. 

I  do  not  however,  I  confess,  offer  this  Memoir  to  the 
public  without  some  anxiety ;  not  from  the  fear  of  any 
honest  opposition  to  my  father's  opinions,  or  censure  of 
the  imperfect  manner  in  which  I  may  have  performed 
my  task :  these  are  of  course  open  to  criticism,  and  are 
fair  and  honorable  objects  of  attack.  But  I  am  aware 
how  easily  the  frank  and  fearless,  because  innocent,  ex 
pressions  of  my  father's  conversation  may  be  misunder 
stood  and  misrepresented,  or  the  private  feelings  of  my 
friends  wounded,  should  there  be  any  one  ungenerous 
enough  to  do  so.  I  will  however  trust  that,  as  this 
Memoir  has  been  written  with  the  most  earnest  desire 
to  tell  the  truth,  but  in  doing  so  to  avoid  giving  just 
cause  of  pain  to  any  one,  I  shall  meet  with  equal  deli 
cacy  from  the  public;  and  shall  find  that  any  angry 
feelings  which  the  bold,  undisguised  expression  of  my 
father's  opinions  during  life  may  have  formerly  excited 
in  the  world,  have  been  long  since  forgotten,  or  are 
buried  in  the  grave  of  him  whose  loss  I  (may  I  not 
rather  say,  we  all  ?)  lament.  S.  H. 

London,  May,  1855. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Birth  and  Family. — Father. — Profession. — Marriage  of  Father.— Moth 
er. — Sir  Isaac  Newton. — School. — Early  Peculiarities. — Talleyrand. — 
College.  —  Goes  to  Normandy.  —  Profession.  —  Curate  on  Salisbury 
Plain. — Marries  his  Brother. — Becomes  Tutor  to  Mr.  Beach. — Goes 
to  Edinburgh Page  13 

CHAPTER  II. 

Arrives  at  Edinburgh. — State  of  Society. — Manners  of  Scotch. — Anec 
dote  of  Mr.  Jeffrey. — Acquaintance  with  Mr.  Horner. — Marriage. — 
Early  difficulties  and  Poverty. — Generosity. — Birth  of  Daughter. — 
Introduces  Mr.  Allen  to  Lord  Holland. — Originates  Review. — State 
of  Society. — State  of  Church. — Character  of  his  Writings  in  Youth. 
— Sketch  of  Opinions  at  the  Time. — Letter  by  Lord  Monteagle. — 
Short  Sketch  of  Articles  in  Review 23 

CHAPTER  III. 

Extracts  from  Lectures. — Preface  to  Sermons. — Analysis  of  Sermons. 
— Sermon  for  the  Blind. — Returns  to  Edinburgh. — Takes  Pupils. — 
Illness  of  Daughter. — Moral  Courage. — Studies  Medicine  and  Moral 
Philosophy 44 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Quits  Edinburgh  for  London. — Settles  in  Doughty  Street. — Makes  Legal 
and  other  Friends. — Obtains  Preachership  of  Foundling  Hospital. 

— Refusal  of  Dr. to  enable  him  to  lease  a  Chapel. — Sermon  to 

Volunteers. — Friendship  with  Lord  Holland. — Introduction  to  Hol 
land  House. — Holland  House,  and  Society  there.  —Obtains  Preacher- 
ship  of  St.  John's  Chapel,  Bedford  Square. — Gives  Lectures  at  Royal 
Institution. — Descriptions  of  their  Effect. — Poverty. — Society  at  his 
House,  and  Suppers. — Anecdote  of  Sir  J.  Mackintosh  and  Cousin. — 
Elected  to  the  Johnson  Literary  Club. — The  King  reads  his  Review, 
and  says  he  will  never  be  a  Bishop. — Preaches  on  Toleration  at  the 
Temple  Church. — Increase  of  Reputation  and  Friends.  —  Natural 

Spirits;  their  Effects. — Some  Anecdotes 66 

A* 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

1806.  Political  Changes. — Obtains  Preferment. — 1807.  Goes  to  Sun 
ning  in  the  Autumn. — Writes  Peter  Plymley. — Its  Effect. — Makes 
the  Acquaintance  of  Lord  Stowell. — Pvevisits  Edinburgh. — Goes  to 
Howick. — No  House  on  the  Living. — Non-residence  permitted. — The 
Residence  Bill  passed. — Goes  down  to  see  the  Living. — Difficulties. — 
Returns  to  London. — Publishes  Sermons. — Removes  Family  to  York 
shire. — Tries  to  negotiate  Exchange  of  Living. — Difficulties  of  Ex 
change. — Necessity  of  Building. — Settles  at  Heslington Page  96 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Establishment  in  Yorkshire. — Habits. — Mode  of  Life. — Reading. — At 
tention  to  Children. — Power  of  abstracting  Thoughts. — Farmer's  Din 
ner. — Medical  Anecdotes. — Experiments. — Extracts  from  Diary. — 
Practical  Essays. — Metaphysical  Essays. — Hints  for  History. — Mr. 
Macaulay's  Letter. — Sir  S.  Romilly's  Visit. — Sermon  on  his  Death. — 
Anecdote  of  Roasted  Quaker. — Dining  out  in  the  Country. — Brother 
and  Sir  J.  Mackintosh's  return  from  India. — Madame  De  StaeTs  Visit 
to  England. — Typhus  Fever. — Verses  on  Mr.  Jeffrey 105 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Builds  House. — Removes  to  Foston. — Description  of  Establishment. — 
Visit  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh. — Becomes  a  Magistrate. — Visit  to 
Newgate  with  Mrs.  Fry,  and  Sermon. — Visit  to  Sir  G.  Philips  in 
Immortal. — Forms  the  Acquaintance  of  the  Earl  of  Carlisle. — Death 
of  only  Sister. — Last  Visit  from  Mr.  Horner. — Bad  Harvest  and  Fe 
ver.  Exertions  among  the  Poor. — Visit  from  Lord  and  Lady  Hol 
land. — Leaves  off  Riding. — Description  of  Calamity. — Shopping  and 
Anecdotes. — Sends  Son  to  School.- — Visits  Lord  Grey, — Account  of 
Travels. — Visit  from  Dr.  Marcet. — Conversation,  and  Bunch. — An 
ecdote  of  Lord 's  Son. — Assizes.  —  Hunt's  Trial.  —  Danger  of 

bad  Harvest.— Death  of  Grattan 143 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Legacy. — Visit  to  Edinburgh. — Visits  London  :  Popularity  there. — 
Letters  to  Home,  and  care  of  Parish. — Takes  Son  to  Charterhouse. — 
Visits  Mr.  Rogers. — Appointed  Chaplain  to  High  Sheriff. — Preaches 
in  Cathedral. — Anecdote  at  Spencer  House. — Meeting  of  Clergy, 
East  Riding. — His  Petition. — Speech. — Living  of  Londesborough.— 
Goes  to  Paris. — Letter  on  receiving  Irreligious  Book. — Death  of 
Father. — Description  of  House  by  Friend. — Love  of  Chess  and  Sing 
ing. —  Marriage  of  Youngest  Daughter.  —  Becomes  Canon  of  Bris 
tol. — Effect  produced  at  Bristol. — History  of  Apologue,  by  Mr.  Ev 
erett .173 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Happiness  increased  by  his  Promotion. — Death  of  eldest  Son. — Re 
moval  to  Combe  Florey. — Rebuilding  of  House. — Lord  Jeffrey's  last 
Visit. — Increased  popularity  at  Bristol. — Collects  Contributions  to 
Review. — French  Revolution. — Riots  at  Bristol. — Speech  on  Reform. 
— Letters  on  Preferment. — Appointed  Canon  of  St.  Paul's. — Death 
of  Sir  James  Mackintosh  in  1832. — Marriage  of  eldest  Daughter  in 
1834. — Village  Anecdotes. — Christens  Grandchild. — Buys  House  in 
Charles  Street. — Rectitude  of  Stewardship  at  St.  Paul's. — Tour  to 
Holland  in  1837. — Talleyrand. — Conversation  in  London,  and  Anec 
dotes. — Begins  Controversy  about  Church. — Petitions  to  House  of 
Lords. — Inscription  for  Statue  of  Lord  Grey Page  200 

CHAPTER  X. 

Visit  to  Combe  Florey. — Kindness  to  Grandchildren. — Sudden  "Wealth. 
— Recollections  of  his  Parishioners  at  Foston. — Death  of  Lord  Hol 
land:  his  Portrait. — Letter  to  Mr.  "Webster. — Sketch  of  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes. — Letter  of  Mr.  Grenville. — Visit  from  Mr.  Moore, 
and  Verses. — Bestows  the  Living  of  Edmonton  on  Mr.  Tate's  Son. 
— Letter  to  Mrs.  Sydney  Smith. — Address  of  Parishioners,  and  An 
swer. — Letter  of  Mrs.  Marcet. — Receipt  for  making  every  day  hap 
py. — Definition  of  Happiness. — Petition  to  the  American  Congress 
in  1843. — Effects. — Speech  from  Mr.  Ticknor. — Letter  from  Mr. 
Wainwright. — Abuse  and  Gifts  from  America. — Effect  of  Preaching 
in  old  Age. — Letter  of  Miss  Edgeworth. — Correspondence  with  Sir 
R.  Peel. — Extract  from  Journal  with  Anecdotes 248 

CHAPTER  XL 

Pamphlet  on  Ballot. — Fragment  on  Irish  Church. — Letter  from  Lord 
Murray. — Lines  written  on  receiving  Garden-chair. — Lines  by  Lady 
Carlisle. — Christens  child. — Sketch  of  Life  and  Conversation  at 
Combe  Florey. — Advice  to  Parishioners. — Conversation. — Medicines 
for  the  Poor. — Saves  Servant's  Life. — Fallacies. — Studies. — Recipe 
for  Salad. — Letter  of  Marion  de  Lorme. — Imitation  of  Sir  James 
Mackintosh.— Close  of  the  Day 286 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Extract  from  Lady 's  Journal. — Last  Illness. — Comes  to  Town. — 

Dr.  Chambers  called  in.  —  Anxiety  of  Friends  for  his  Recovery. — 
Meeting  of  Brothers. — Living  to  poor  Clergyman. — Death  of  Sydney 
Smith. — Death  of  his  eldest  Brother 345 


MEMOIR 

or 

THE  REY.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Birth  and  Family. — Father. — Profession. — Marriage  of  Father. — Moth 
er. — Sir  Isaac  Newton. — School. — Early  Peculiarities. — Talleyrand. — 
College.  —  Goes  to  Normandy.  —  Profession.  —  Curate  on  Salisbury 
Plain. — Marries  his  Brother. — Becomes  Tutor  to  Mr.  Beach. — Goes 


MY  father,  the  Eev.  Sydney  Smith,  was  "born  at 
Woodford,  in  Essex,  1771,  the  second  of  four  brothers 
and  one  sister,  all  remarkable  for  their  talents ;  the 
two  eldest  eminently  so.  To  these  talents,  as  well  as 
to  his  great  animal  spirits,  he  had  an  hereditary  right ; 
for  my  grandfather,  Mr.  Kobert  Smith,  was  a  man  of 
singular  natural  gifts ;  very  clever,  odd  by  nature,  but 
still  more  odd  by  design,  loving  to  astonish,  and,  fully 
aware  that  knowledge  is  power,  he  employed  the  activity 
of  a  very  sagacious  mind,  through  a  long  and  varied 
life,  in  acquiring  a  minute  acquaintance  with  the  history 
of  all  he  came  in  contact  with.  On  becoming  early  his 
own  master,  by  the  death  of  his  father,  and  possessed 
of  some  money,  he  employed  all  the  early  part  of  life 
(having  first  married  a  very  beautiful  girl,  from  whom 


14  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

he  parted  at  the  church  door,  leaving  her  with  her 
mother,  Mrs.  Oli^i,  till  his  return  from  America)  partly 
in  wandering  over  the  world  for  many  years,  and  partly 
Sri  .-diminishing  his  fortune  by  buying,  altering,  spoiling, 
and  then  selling  about  nineteen  different  places  in  En 
gland,  till,  in  his  old  age,  he  at  last  settled  at  Bishop's 
Lydiard,  in  Somersetshire,  where  he  died. 

My  grandfather  was  a  very  handsome  and  picturesque 
old  man  when  I  knew  him,  his  hair  long,  thin,  and  per 
fectly  white.  To  add  to  the  effect  of  his  appearance 
and  manner,  he  used  to  affect  the  drab-colored  dress  of 
a  Quaker,  with  a  large  flap  hat,  rather  like  those  of  our 
coal-heavers  ;  this  hat  was  so  extraordinary  in  form,  and 
had  seen  so  many  years'  service,  that  when  at  last  he 
offered  its  remains  to  his  old  factotum  Charles,  who  was 
digging  in  his  garden,  the  man,  after  twisting  and  twirl 
ing  it  round  and  round  for  some  time,  and  examining 
its  proportions,  returned  it  to  him  with  a  broad  grin, 
saying,  "No,  thank  your  honor,  it's  no  iise  to  I."  I 
remember  him  sitting  in  his  arm-chair  basking  in  the 
sun,  leaning  forward  on  his  crutch-stick,  a  fine  study  for 
Rembrandt,  and  telling  this  story  of  his  favorite  hat  till 
the  tears  ran  down  his  cheeks  with  laughter. 

But  though  the  sons  inherited  talent  from  their  fa 
ther,  yet  all  the  finer  qualities  of  their  mind  they  derived 
from  their  mother,  Miss  Olier,  the  youngest  daughter  of 
a  French  emigrant,  from  Languedoc,  who  was  driven  over 
to  England  for  his  religious  principles  at  the  Revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  was  reduced  to  great  poverty 
in  consequence ;  but  his  eldest  daughter,  a  woman  of 
much  sense  and  energy  of  character,  established  a  school 
for  young  ladies  in  Bloomsbury  Square,  which  acquired 
considerable  celebrity  under  her  direction,  and  thus  en 
abled  her  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  her  family. 
Mv  father  used  to  attribute  a  little  of  his  constitutional 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  15 

gayety  to  this  infusion  of  French  blood.  His  maternal 
grandfather,  Mr.  Olier,  could  not  speak  a  word  of  En 
glish.  He  married  a  Miss  Barton,  who  was  a  collateral 
descendant  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton's,  through  his  mother's 
second  marriage — a  very  distinguished  ancestor  to  pos 
sess,  and  one  not  to  be  lightly  passed  over.* 

My  grandmother,  Mr.  Olier's  youngest  daughter,  had 
(I  have  been  told,  for  I  never  saw  her)  a  noble  counte 
nance,  which  two  of  her  sons  inherited,  and  as  noble  a 
mind.  To  her  early  care  of  them,  and  to  the  respect 
with  which  her  virtues  and  high  tone  of  feeling  inspired 
their  young  hearts,  may  be  ascribed  much  that  was 
good  and  great  in  their  characters.  The  charm  of  her 
mind  and  manner  extended  even  to  her  correspondence. 
I  heard  a  singular  proof  of  this  the  other  day,  from  a 
school-fellow  of  my  father's,  who  said  that  when  he  or 
his  younger  brother  Courtenay  received  one  of  her  let 
ters  at  Winchester,  the  school-boys  would  often  gather 
round  and  beg  to  hear  it  read  aloud.  Her  influence, 
however,  did  not  remain  to  them  very  long  in  after-life. 
Delicate;  with  a  husband  who,  though  delightful  from 
the  charm  of  his  manner  to  the  world,  was  not  very  well 
suited  to  domestic  life,  from  his  wandering  habits  ;  and 
with  the  natural  anxiety  of  a  mother  about  four  such 
sons,  often  left  for  long  periods  entirely  to  her  care  and 
guidance,  she  fell  into  ill-health  while  still  young  and 
beautiful,  and,  to  the  deep  regret  of  all  who  knew  her, 
died  about  two  years  after  the  marriage  of  my  father. 

This  reminds  me  of  an  anecdote  of  Talleyrand,  who, 

*  At  the  moment  of  going  to  press,  I  learn  from  Sir  David  Brewster 
(now  engaged  on  a  Life  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton)  that  there  is  an  error  in 
the  pedigree  inserted  in  my  first  edition.  In  deference  to  his  superior 
knowledge  I  therefore  omit  it;  but  I  feel  sure  he  will  excuse  me  for 
still  retaining  a  tradition  so  long  preserved  in  our  family,  till  I  have 
had  more  time  than  I  can  command  at  present  to  investigate  the  sub 
ject. 


16  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

when  living  as  an  emigrant  in  this  country,  was  on  very 
intimate  terms  with  her  eldest  son,  Robert,  more  gener 
ally  known  by  the  name  given  him  by  his  school-fellows 
at  Eton,  of  Bobus.  The  conversation  turned  on  the 
beauty  often  transmitted  from  parents  to  their  children. 
My  uncle,  who  was  singularly  handsome  (indeed  I  think 
I  have  seldom  seen  a  finer  specimen  of  manly  beauty, 
or  a  countenance  more  expressive  of  the  high  moral 
qualities  he  possessed),  perhaps  with  a  little  youthful 
vanity,  spoke  of  the  great  beauty  of  his  mother,  on 
which  Talleyrand,  with  a  shrug  and  a  sly  disparaging 
look  at  his  fine  face,  as  if  he  saw  nothing  to  admire,  ex 
claimed,  "Ah!  mon  ami,  c'etait  done  apparemment  mon 
sieur  votre  pere  qui  n'etait  pas  bien." 

The  peculiarities  and  talents  of  the  young  Smiths 
were  very  early  evinced;  their  mother  describes  them 
as  neglecting  games,  seizing  every  hour  of  leisure  for 
study,  and  often  lying  on  the  floor,  stretched  over  their 
books,  discussing  with  loud  voice  and  most  vehement 
gesticulation,  every  point  that  arose — often  subjects 
above  their  years  —  and  arguing  upon  them  with  a 
warmth  and  fierceness  as  if  life  and  death  hung  upon 
the  issue — a  most  interesting  and  curious  spectacle  to  a 
mother  justly  proud  of  her  boys,  and  rejoicing  in  these 
signs  of  their  future  distinction. 

They  were  like  young  athletes,  constantly  trying  their 
intellectual  strength  against  each  other;  "and  the  re 
sult,"  I  have  heard  my  father  say,  "  was  to  make  us  the 
most  intolerable  and  overbearing  set  of  boys  that  can 
well  be  imagined,  till  later  in  life  we  found  our  level  in 
the  world." 

As  his  sons  were  so  nearly  of  an  age,  Mr.  Smith 
deemed  it  advisable  to  separate  them  at  school  as  much 
as  possible,  that  there  might  not  be  too  strong  rivalry 
between  them.  Robert,  the  eldest,  with  Cecil,  the  third 


MEMO1K  OF  THE  KEV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  17 

son,  were  therefore  sent  to  Eton,  where  Robert  distin 
guished  himself  greatly,  and  was  one  of  the  four  boys 
(he  was  then  only  eighteen)  who  wrote  the  "Micro 
cosm  ;"  Mr.  Canning,  Mr.  Frere,  and  Mr.  John  Smith, 
being  the  other  three. 

From  Eton  he  went  to  King's  College,  Cambridge, 
where  (says  a  sketch  of  him,  written,  I  believe,  by  his 
friend  Lord  Carlisle,  after  his  death)  "he  added  materi 
ally  to  the  reputation  for  scholarship  and  classical  com 
position  which  he  had  established  at  school ;  and  if  the 
most  fastidious  critics  of  our  day  would  diligently  pe 
ruse  the  three  triposes  which  he  composed  in  Lucretian 
rhythm,  on  the  three  systems  of  Plato,  Descartes,  and 
Newton,  we  believe  that  we  should  not  run  the  least  risk 
of  incurring  the  charge  of  exaggeration,  in  declaring  that 
these  compositions  in  Latin  verse  have  not  been  excelled 
since  Latin  was  a  living  language.  Be  this  said  with 
the  peace  of  Milton  and  Cowley,  with  the  peace  of  his 
fellow-Etonians,  Grey  and  Lord  Wellesley." 

My  father  was  sent  as  early  as  six  years  of  age  to  a 
school  at  Southampton  (kept  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Marsh,  a 
scholar  of  some  celebrity),  which  he  always  spoke  of  with 
pleasure.  While  there  he  received  much  kindness  from 
the  family  of  the  present  Lady  Mildmay,  whose  friend 
ship  he  retained  from  that  time,  and  who  still  survives 
her  old  friend.  From  thence  he  was  sent,  with  his 
youngest  brother,  Courtenay,  to  the  foundation  at  "Win 
chester — a  rough  apprenticeship  to  the  world  for  one  so 
young — from  which  Courtenay  ran  away  twice,  unable 
to  bear  it.  My  father  suffered  here  many  years  of  mis 
ery  and  positive  starvation ;  there  never  was  enough  pro 
vided,  even  of  the  coarsest  food,  for  the  whole  school,  and 
the  little  boys  were  of  course  left  to  fare  as  they  could. 
Even  in  old  age  he  used  to  shudder  at  the  recollections 
of  Winchester,  and  I  have  heard  him  speak  with  horror 


18  MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH, 

of  the  misery  of  the  years  he  spent  there :  the  whole 
system  was  then,  my  father  used  to  say,  one  of  abuse, 
neglect,  and  vice.  It  has  since,  I  believe,  partaken  of 
the  general  improvement  of  education.  However,  in 
spite  of  hunger  and  neglect,  he  rose  in  due  time  to  be 
Captain  of  the  school ;  and  while  there,  received,  to 
gether  with  his  brother  Courtenay,  a  most  flattering 
but  involuntary  compliment  from  his  school-fellows,  who 
signed  a  round-robin,*  "refusing  to  try  for  the  College 
prizes  if  the  Smiths  were  allowed  to  contend  for  them 
any  more,  as  they  always  gained  them."  He  used  to 
say,  "I  believe,  while  a  boy  at  school,  I  made  above  ten 
thousand  Latin  verses  ;  and  no  man  in  his  senses  would 
dream  in  after-life  of  ever  making  another.  So  much  for 
life  and  time  wasted." 

At  school  he  was  not  only  leader  in  learning,  but  in 
mischief,  and  w^as  discovered  inventing  a  catapult  by 
lamp-light,  and  commended  for  his  ingenuity  by  the 
master,  who  little  dreamed  it  was  intended  to  capture  a 
neighboring  turkey,  whose  well-filled  crop  had  long  at 
tracted  the  attention,  and  awakened  the  desires  of  the 
hungry  urchins.  He  was  fond  of  telling  an  incident 
which  happened  to  him  when  either  at  Winchester  or 
Oxford,  I  am  not  sure  which.  A  friend  who  was  mak 
ing  a  tour,  wrote  in  great  distress,  asking  him  to  lend 
him  five  guineas ;  he  had  but  four,  which  he  was  con 
veying  himself  to  the  post,  much  lamenting  he  had  not 
the  sum  wanted,  when  he  suddenly  saw  shining  on  the 
high-road  before  him  another  guinea,  and  no  owner  be 
ing  to  be  found  to  claim  it,  he  with  joy  inclosed  it  in 
another  cover  to  his  friend. 

I  have  heard  my  father  speak  of  one  of  the  first  things 
that  stimulated  him  in  acquiring  knowledge.  A  man 
of  considerable  eminence,  whose  name  I  can  not  recall, 

*  To  Dr.  Warton,  then  Head  Master  or  Warden  of  Winchester. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  1'j 

found  my  father  reading  Virgil  tinder  a  tree,  when  all 
his  school-fellows  were  at  play.  He  took  the  book  out 
of  his  hand,  looked  at  it,  patted  the  boy's  head,  gave 
him  a  shilling,  and  said,  "  Clever  "boy !  clever  boy  1  that 
is  the  way  to  conquer  the  world."  This  produced  a 
strong  impression  on  the  young  Sydney.  While  at 
Winchester  he  had  been  one  year  Pra3positor  of  the  Col 
lege,  and  another,  Prsepositor  of  the  Hall.  He  left  Win 
chester,  as  Captain,  for  New  College,  Oxford,  where,  as 
such,  he  was  entitled  to  a  Scholarship,  and  afterward  to 
a  Fellowship.  New  College  was  chiefly  then  renowned 
for  the  quantity  of  port  wine  consumed  by  the  Fellows ; 
but  the  very  slender  income  allowed  him  by  his  father, 
perhaps  luckily  for  his  health,  did  not  permit  him  to  in 
dulge  in  such  habits.  As  my  father  was  too  proud  to 
accept  what  he  could  not  return,  he  lived  much  out  of 
society,  and  thus  lost  one  of  the  advantages  of  College 
to  a  poor  man — that  of  making  private  friends. 

Soon  after  quitting  Winchester,  and  before  he  became 
a  Fellow  of  New  College,  his  father  sent  him  to  Mont 
Yilliers,  in  Normandy,  where  he  remained  en  pension 
for  six  months,  to  perfect  his  knowledge  of  French, 
which  he  always  after  spoke  with  great  fluency.  The 
fierceness  of  the  French  Revolution  was  then  at  its 
height,  and  for  his  safety  it  was  thought  necessary  that 
he  should  enroll  himself  in  one  of  the  Jacobin  Clubs  of 
the  town,  in  which  he  was  entered  as  "  Le  Citoyen  Smit, 
Membre  Afnlie  au  Club  des  Jacobins  de  Mont  Villiers." 
The  only  revolutionary  peril  he  encountered,  however, 
was  in  attending  his  two  friends,  Captain  Drinkwater 
and  his  brother,  to  Cherbourg.  These  gentlemen,  who 
were  excellent  draughtsmen,  began  sketching  the  works, 
in  spite  of  my  father's  remonstrances,  who  said,  "We 
shall  all  be  infallibly  hung  on  the  next  lantern-post,  if 
you  are  seen ;"  and  in  truth,  in  a  few  minutes  they  had 


20  MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

a  gendarme  upon  them ;  and  it  required  all  my  fathers 
skill,  address,  and  knowledge  of  the  language,  with  a  few 
good-humored  jokes,  and  boasts  of  his  own  citizenship, 
to  extricate  himself  and  his  friends  out  of  his  hands. 
When  clear  off — "And  now,  my  friends,  no  more 
sketching,  if  you  please,"  said  he. 

I  know  little  of  his  career  at  College,  save  that  he 
obtained  his  Fellowship  as  soon  as  it  was  possible,  and 
from  that  moment  was  cast  upon  his  own  resources  by 
his  father,  who  never  afterward  gave  him  a  farthing  till 
his  death.  Yet  with  this  small  income,  about  £100  per 
annum,  he  not  only  preserved  that  honesty,  so  often  dis 
regarded  by  young  men,  of  keeping  out  of  debt,  but 
undertook  to  pay  a  sum  of  £30  for  a  debt  incurred  when 
at  Winchester  School  by  his  younger  brother  Courtenay, 
who  had  not  had  courage  to  confess  it  to  his  father  be 
fore  his  departure  for  India.  Courtenay  became  Supreme 
Judge  of  the  Adawlut  Court,  subsequently  made  a  very 
large  fortune,  acquired  great  reputation  as  a  Judge  and 
Oriental  scholar,  returned  to  this  country  in  his  old  age, 
and  died  suddenly  a  few  years  afterward. 

On  leaving  College  it  became  necessary  that  my  fa 
ther  should  select  a  profession.  His  own  inclinations 
would  have  led  him  to  the  Bar,  in  which  profession  he 
felt  that  his  talents  promised  him  success  and  distinc 
tion,  and  where  a  career  was  open  to  him  that  might 
gratify  his  ambition.  But  his  father,  who  had  been  at 
considerable  expense  in  bringing  up  his  eldest  brother 
Eobert  to  that  profession,  and  fitting  out  the  other  two 
for  India,  after  giving  up  a  project  he  once  had  of  send 
ing  Sydney  as  supercargo  to  China,  urged  so  strongly 
his  going  into  the  Church,  that  my  father,  after  consid 
ering  the  subject  deeply,  felt  it  his  duty  to  yield  to  my 
grandfather's  wishes,  and  sacrifice  his  own,  by  entering 
the  Church,  and  became  a  curate  in  a  small  village  in 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  21 

the  midst  of  Salisbury  Plain.  One  of  the  first  profes 
sional  duties  he  was  called  upon  to  perform  was  to  marry 
his  eldest  "brother  Eobert  to  Miss  Yernon,  aunt  to  the 
present  Lord  Lansdowne.  In  a  letter  to  his  mother  on 
the  occasion,  he  says,  "The  marriage  took  place  in  the 
library  at  Bowood,  and  all  I  can  tell  you  of  it  is,  that 
he  cried,  she  cried,  and  I  cried;"  the  only  tears,  I  be 
lieve,  this  marriage  ever  produced,  save  those  we  shed 
on  her  grave. 

Sydney  Smith,  a  curate  in  the  midst  of  Salisbury 
Plain !  To  those  who  knew  him,  and  his  cast  of  char 
acter,  the  mere  statement  of  the  fact  will  be  enough  to 
paint  his  feelings ;  but  to  those  who  knew  him  not,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  express  the  famine  of  the  mind  that 
came  over  him  when  planted  in  that  great  .waste  of  Na 
ture.  He  has  himself  painted  a  curate  as  "the  poor 
working-man  of  God — a  learned  man  in  a  hovel,  good 
and  patient — a  comforter  and  a  teacher — the  first  and 
purest  pauper  of  the  hamlet ;  yet  showing  that,  in  the 
midst  of  worldly  misery,  he  has  the  heart  of  a  gentle 
man,  the  spirit  of  a  Christian,  and  the  kindness  of  a 
pastor." 

This  picture  can  hardly  be  heightened,  as  descriptive 
of  a  curate  in  the  abstract ;  but  here  was  a  curate 
formed,  by  his  wit  and  powers  of  conversation,  for  the 
society  of  his  fellow-creatures,  doomed  to  the  most  un 
broken  solitude ;  and,  pauper  as  he  was,  with  scarcely 
a  hamlet  to  interest  him,  for  the  village  consisted  but 
of  a  few  scattered  cottages  and  farms,  in  the  midst  of 
Salisbury  Plain.  Once  a  week  a  butcher's  cart  came 
over  from  Salisbury ;  it  was  then  only  he  could  obtain 
any  meat,  and  he  often  dined,  he  said,  on  a  mess  of 
potatoes,  sprinkled  with  a  little  catchup.  Too  poor  to 
command  books,  his  only  resource  was  the  Squire,  dur 
ing  the  few  months  he  resided  there ;  and  his  only  re- 


22  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

taxation,  not  being  able  to  keep  a  horse,  long  walks  over 
those  interminable  plains. 

In  one  of  these  walks  he  narrowly  escaped  with  his 
life,  being  overtaken  in  the  midst  of  the  Plain,  far  from 
any  habitation,  by  a  violent  snow-storm ;  and,  having 
lost  all  means  of  tracing  his  way,  there  being  no  trees 
or  vestige  of  human  habitation  for  miles  round,  it  was 
by  mere  chance  that  he  arrived,  late  at  night,  and  fear 
fully  exhausted,  at  his  own  home. 

The  Squire,  after  the  good  old  orthodox  fashion  of 
squires,  asked  his  curate  to  dinner  on  Sunday,  and,  to 
his  surprise,  found  the  tedium  of  a  Sunday  evening  in 
the  country  so  much  beguiled  by  the  society  of  his  young 
friend,  that  the  invitations  became  more  and  more  fre 
quent.  This-  acquaintance  soon  ripened  into  friendship, 
and  ended  by  the  Squire  requesting  my  father  to  resign 
the  curacy  at  the  termination  of  the  two  years,  and  ac 
company  his  eldest  son  abroad.  Here  my  father  best 
paints  what  happened. 

"  When  first  I  went  into  the  Church,  I  had  a  curacy 
in  the  middle  of  Salisbury  Plain ;  the  parish  was  Neth- 
erhaven,  near  Amesbury.  The  Squire  of  the  parish,  Mr. 
Beach,  took  a  fancy  to  me,  and  after  I  had  served  it  two 
years,  he  engaged  me  as  tutor  to  his  eldest  son,  and  it 
was  arranged  that  I  and  his  son  should  proceed  to  the 
University  of  Weimar,  in  Saxony.  We  set  out ;  but 
before  reaching  our  destination,  Germany  was  disturbed 
by  war,  and,  in  stress  of  politics,  we  put  into  Edinburgh, 
where  I  remained  five  years.  The  principles  of  the 
French  Revolution  were  then  fully  afloat,  and  it  is  im 
possible  to  conceive  a  more  violent  and  agitated  state 
of  society." 


CHAPTER    II. 

Arrives  at  Edinburgh. — State  of  Society. — Manners  of  Scotch. — Anec 
dote  of  Mr.  Jeffrey. — Acquaintance  with  Mr.  Horner. — Marriage. — 
Early  difficulties  and  Poverty. — Generosity. — Birth  of  Daughter. — 
Introduces  Mr.  Allen  to  Lord  Holland. — Originates  Review. — State 
of  Society. — State  of  Church. — Character  of  his  Writings  in  Youth. 
— Sketch  of  Opinions  at  the  Time. — Letter  by  Lord  Monteagle. — 
Short  Sketch  of  Articles  in  Review. 

IN  the  year  1797,  the  period,  I  "believe,  at  which  my 
father  arrived  in  Edinburgh  with  his  pupil,  Mr.  Beach, 
that  city  was  rich  in  talent,  full  of  men  who  have  acted 
important  parts  while  they  lived,  and  many  of  whom 
have  left  names  that  will  live  after  them :  Jeffrey,  Hor 
ner,  Playfair,  Walter  Scott,  Dugald  Stewart,  Brougham, 
Allen,  Brown,  Murray,  Leydcn,  Lord  Webb  Seymour, 
Lord  Woodhouselee,*  Alison,  Sir  James  Hall,  and  many 
others. 

Society  at  that  time  in  Edinburgh  was  upon  the  most 
easy  and  agreeable  footing;  the  Scotch  were  neither 
rich  nor  ashamed  of  being  poor,  and  there  was  not  that 
struggle  for  display  which  so  much  diminishes  the  charm 
of  London  society,  and  has,  with  the  increase  of  wealth, 
now  crept  into  that  of  Edinburgh.  Few  days  passed 
without  the  meeting  of  some  of  these  friends,  either  in 
each  other's  houses,  or  (in  what  was  then  very  com 
mon)  oyster-cellars,  where,  I  am  told,  the  most  delight 
ful  little  suppers  used  to  be  given,  in  which  every  sub 
ject  was  discussed,  with  a  freedom  impossible  in  larger 
societies,  and  with  a  candor  which  is  only  found  where 
men  fight  for  truth  and  not  for  victory. 

*  Father  of  the  historian  Mr.  Peter  Tytler. 


24  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

Into  this  soil,  then,  so  congenial  to  his  mind  and 
tastes,  my  father  was  transplanted ;  and,  though  a  per 
fect  stranger,  the  kindness  with  which  he  was  received 
is  best  shown  by  the  strong  attachment  he  ever  retained 
for  his  Scotch  friends,  though  far  removed  from  them 
in  after-life,  and  by  the  pleasure  with  which  he  always 
looked  back  to  this  period,  which  he  often  refers  to  in 
his  letters.  In  one  of  them  he  exclaims,  "  When  shall 
I  see  Scotland  again  ?  Never  shall  I  forget  the  happy 
days  passed  there,  amidst  odious  smells,  barbarous 
sounds,  bad  suppers,  excellent  hearts,  and  most  en 
lightened  and  cultivated  understandings!"  I  believe 
he  kept  up,  with  hardly  any  exception,  the  friendships 
then  formed,  and  I  heard  an  incident  yesterday  which, 
trifle  as  it  was,  showed  such  affection  for  my  father's 
memory  that  it  quite  touched  me.  One  evening  my  fa 
ther  was  at  his  old  friend  Lord  Woodhouselee's  coun 
try-house,  near  Edinburgh,  when  a  violent  storm  of 
wind  arose,  and  shook  the  windows  so  as  to  annoy 
every  body  present  and  prevent  conversation.  "  Why 
do  you  not  stop  them  ?"  said  my  father ;  "  give  me  a 
knife,  a  screw,  and  a  bit  of  wood,  and  I  will  cure  it  in 
a  moment ;"  he  soon  effected  his  purpose,  fixed  up  his 
little  bit  of  wood,  and  it  was  christened  Sydney's  but 
ton.  Fifty  years  after,  one  of  the  family  finding  Mr. 
Tytler  papering  and  painting  this  room,  exclaimed, 
"Oh!  Jaines,  you  are  surely  not  touching  Sydney's 
button  ?"  but  on  running  to  examine  the  old  place  at 
the  window,  she  found  Sydney's  button  was  there,  pre 
served  and  respected  amidst  all  the  changes  of  masters, 
time,  and  taste. 

Though  truly  loving  them,  his  quick  sense  of  the 
ludicrous  made  him  derive  great  amusement  from  the 
little  foibles  and  peculiarities  of  the  Scotch ;  and  often 
has  he  made  them  laugh  by  his  descriptions  of  things 


MEMOIR    OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  iir, 

which  struck  his  English  eye.  "It  requires,"  he  used 
to  saj,  "  a  surgical  operation  to  get  a  joke  well  into  a 
Scotch  understanding.  Their  only  idea  of  wit,  or  rather 
that  inferior  variety  of  this  electric  talent  which  prevails 
occasionally  in  the  North,  and  which,  under  the  name 
of  WUT,  is  so  infinitely  distressing  to  people  of  good 
taste,  is  laughing  immoderately  at  stated  intervals.  They 
are  so  imbued  with  metaphysics  that  they  even  make 
love  metaphysically ;  I  overheard  a  young  lady  of  my 
acquaintance,  at  a  dance  in  Edinburgh,  exclaim,  in  a 
sudden  pause  of  the  music,  '  What  you  say,  my  Lord, 
is  very  true  of  love  in  the  aibstract,  but —  Here  the  fid 
dlers  began  fiddling  furiously,  and  the  rest  was  lost. 
No  nation  has  so  large  a  stock  of  benevolence  of  heart : 
if  you  meet  with  an  accident,  half  Edinburgh  immediate 
ly  flocks  to  your  door  to  inquire  after  youx  jpure  hand  or 
your  pure  foot,  and  with  a  degree  of  interest  that  con 
vinces  you  their  whole  hearts  are  in  the  inquiry.  You 
find  they  usually  arrange  their  dishes  at  dinner  by  the 
points  of  the  compass  ;  '  Sandy,  put  the  gigot  of  mutton 
to  the  south,  and  move  the  singet  sheep's  head  a  wrec  bit 
to  the  nor'wast.'  If  you  knock  at  the  door,  you  hear  a 
shrill  female  voice  from  the  fifth  flat  shriek  out,  '  "VVha's 
chapping  at  the  door?'  which  is  presently  opened  by  a 
lassie  with  short  petticoats,  bare  legs,  and  thick  ankles. 
My  Scotch  servants  bargained  they  were  not  to  have  salm 
on  more  than  three  times  a  week,  and  always  pulled  off 
their  stockings,  in  spite  of  my  repeated  objurgations,  the 
moment  my  back  was  turned."  "Their  temper  stands 
any  thing  but  an  attack  on  their  climate ;  even  the  en 
lightened  mind  of  Jeffrey  can  not  shake  off  the  illusion 
that  myrtles  flourish  at  Craig  Crook.  In  vain  I  have 
represented  to  him  th.it  they  arc  of  the  genus  CdTduus, 
and  pointed  out  their  prickly  peculiarities.  In  vain  I 
have  reminded  him  that  I  have  seen  hackney-coaches 
VOL.  L—  B 


26  MEMOIR   OF  THE  BEV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

drawn  by  four  horses  in  the  winter,  on  account  of  the 
snow ;  that  I  had  rescued  a  man  blown  flat  against  my 
door  by  the  violence  of  the  winds,  and  black  in  the  face  ; 
that  even  the  experienced  Scotch  fowls  did  not  venture 
to  cross  the  streets,  but  sidled  along,  tails  aloft,  without 
venturing  to  encounter  the  gale.  Jeffrey  sticks  to  his 
myrtle  illusions,  and  treats  my  attacks  with  as  much 
contempt  as  if  I  had  been  a  wild  visionary,  who  had 
never  breathed  his  caller  air,  nor  lived  and  suffered  under 
the  rigor  of  his  climate,  nor  spent  five  years  in  discuss 
ing  metaphysics  and  medicine  in  that  garret  of  the  eartli 
— that  knuckle-end  of  England — that  land  of  Calvin, 
oat-cakes,  and  sulphur/' 

The  reigning  bore  at  this  time  in  Edinburgh  was 
;  his  favorite  subject,  the  JN"orth  Pole.  It  mat 
tered  not  how  far  south  you  began,  you  found  your 
self  transported  to  the  north  pole  before  you  could 
take  breath ;  no  one  escaped  him.  My  father  declared 
he  should  invent  a  slip  button.  Jeffrey  fled  from  him 
as  from  the  plague,  when  possible ;  but  one  day  his 
arch-tormentor  met  him  in  a  narrow  lane,  and  began 
instantly  on  the  north  pole.  Jeffrey,  in  despair  and 
out  of  all  patience,  darted  past  him,  exclaiming,  "D — 
the  north  pole!"*  My  father  met  him  shortly  after, 
boiling  with  indignation  at  Jeffrey's  contempt  of  the 
north  pole.  "  Oh,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  my  father, 
•'  never  mind ;  no  one  minds  what  Jeffrey  says,  you 
know ;  he  is  a  privileged  person ;  he  respects  nothing, 
absolutely  nothing.  Why,  you  will  scarcely  believe  it, 
but  it  is  not  more  than  a  week  ago  that  I  heard  him 
speak  disrespectfully  of  the  equator ! ?' 

My  father  tells  of  his  first  acquaintance  with  Horner, 

*  I  see  this  anecdote  in  Mr.  Moore's  Memoirs  attributed  to  Leslie, 
but  I  have  so  often  heard  it  told  as  applying  to  a  very  different  person, 
that  I  think  he  was  mistaken. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  27 

who  was  at  that  time  among  the  most  conspicuous 
young  men  in  "that  energetic  and  unfragrant  city." 
"My  desire  to  know  him  proceeded  first  of  all  from 
being  cautioned  against  him  by  some  excellent  and 
feeble  people  to  whom  I  brought  letters  of  introduc 
tion,  and  who  represented  him  as  a  person  of  violent 
political  opinions.  I  interpreted  this  to  mean  a  per 
son  who  thought  for  himself,  who  had  firmness  enough 
to  take  his  own  line  in  life,  and  who  loved  truth  better 
than  he  loved  Dundas,  at  that  time  the  tyrant  of  Scot 
land.  I  found  my  interpretation  just,  and  from  then 
till  the  period  of  his  death  we  lived  in  constant  society 
and  friendship  with  each  other."  In  speaking  of  him 
after  his  death,  in  a  letter  to  his  brother,  he  says,  "  Hor- 
ner  loved  truth  so  much  that  he  never  could  bear  any 
jesting  upon  important  subjects.  I  remember  one  even 
ing  the  late  Lord  Dudley  and  myself  pretended  to 
justify  the  conduct  of  the  Government  in  stealing  the 
Danish  fleet.  We  carried  on  the  argument  with  some 
wickedness  against  our  graver  friend ;  he  could  not 
stand  it,  but  bolted  indignantly  out  of  the  room.  We 
flung  up  the  sash,  and,  with  a  loud  peal  of  laughter, 
professed  ourselves  decided  Scandinavians ;  we  offered 
him  not  only  the  ships,  but  all  the  shot,  powder, 
cordage,  and  even  the  biscuit,  if  he  would  come  back ; 
but  nothing  could  turn  him ;  he  went  home,  and  it 
took  us  a  fortnight  of  serious  behavior  before  we  were 
forgiven."  I  wish  his  pen  had  left  us  any  account 
of  the  other  distinguished  men  whose  friendship  he 
obtained  in  Edinburgh ;  but  it  has  left  but  one  other, 
and  that,  I  believe,  was  written  at  a  later  period  of 
life. 

After  two  years'  residence  in  Edinburgh  he  returned 
to  England,  to  marry  Miss  Pybus,  to  whom  he  had 
long  been  engaged,  and  whom  he  had  known  from  a 


28  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

very  early  period  of  Iris  life,  as  she  was  the  intimate 
friend  and  school-fellow  of  his  only  sister,  Maria.  This 
marriage  took  place  with  the  entire  consent  of  her  moth 
er,  Mrs.  Pybus ;  but  with  so  vehement  an  opposition 
on  the  part  of  her  brother,  Mr.  Charles  Pybus  (who 
was  a  strong  politician,  and  one  of  the  Lords  of  the 
Admiralty  under  Mr.  Pitt),  as  produced  a  complete 
breach  between  them,  and  deprived  them  of  the  assist 
ance  and  protection  he  might  have  given  them  on  their 
entrance  into  life. 

Thus  deprived  of  the  only  relation  capable  of  afford 
ing  her  protection  and  assistance,  it  was  lucky  that  Miss 
Pybus  had  some  fortune,  for  my  father's  only  contri 
bution  toward  their  future  menage  (save  his  own  tal 
ents  and  character)  wTerc  six  small  silver  teaspoons, 
which,  from  much  wear,  had  become  the  ghosts  of  their 
former  selves.  One  day,  in  the  madness  of  his  joy,  he 
came  running  into  the  room  and  flung  these  into  her  lap, 
saying,  "  There,  Kate,  you  lucky  girl,  I  give  you  all  my 
fortune!" 

Upon  this  small  portion  (which  my  father's  first  step 
was  to  secure  in  the  strictest  manner  to  his  wife  and 
children,  though  Mrs.  Pybus,  who  had  perfect  confidence 
in  him,  had  thought  it  would  have  been  better  to  leave 
a  portion  of  it  unsettled  in  case  of  need),  and  the  six 
silver  spoons,  they  determined  to  return  to  Edinburgh 
and  set  up  housekeeping. 

"  One  of  our  early  difficulties,"  said  my  mother,  "was, 
how  we  should  buy  the  necessary  plate  and  linen  for 
our  new  household;  but  my  dear  mother's  liberality 
had  furnished  me  with  the  means,  by  bestowing  on  me, 
when  I  entered  the  world,  my  sister,  Lady  Fletcher's, 
necklace,  consisting  of  a  double  row  of  pearls,  which 
were  said  to  be  the  finest,  except  Mrs.  Hastings',  that 
had  been  brought  to  this  country.  I  took  them  to  —  — , 


MEMOIR  OF  THE    REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  29 

and  sold  them  for  £500,  and  all  we  most  wanted  was 
thus  obtained.  Several  years  after,  when  visiting  the 
shop  with  Miss  Fox  and  Miss  Vernon,  I  saw  in  one  of 
the  glass  cases  my  own  necklace,  every  pearl  of  which 
I  knew,  and  had  often  strung.  I  had  the  curiosity 
to  ask  the  price;  'Fifteen  hundred  pounds/  was  the 
answer." 

Mr.  Beach  presented  my  father,  soon  after,  with  a 
thousand  pounds  for  his  care  of  his  eldest  son,  which  he 
put  into  the  Stocks,  and  in  which  consisted  his  whole 
worldly  wealth.  And  here  I  must  introduce  a  little  trait, 
which,  though  trifling  in  itself,  yet,  considering  his  cir 
cumstances,  deserves  to  be  mentioned. 

He  had  made  the  acquaintance,  during  his  residence 
in  Edinburgh,  of  a  family  consisting  of  a  lady  (one  of 
the  most  beautiful  specimens  of  old  age  I  have  ever 
met)  and  four  daughters,  who  seemed  to  live  for  no 
other  object  than  this  mother.  He  accidentally  discov 
ered  that  this  interesting  old  lady  was  suddenly  in 
volved  in  pecuniary  difficulties.  Regretting  how  little 
he  had  to  offer,  he  entreated  she  would  not  refuse  the 
loan  of  a  hundred  pounds  out  of  his  little  store ;  it 
was  accepted  with  the  same  kind  feeling  with  which 
it  was  offered.  I  never  heard  the  circumstance  till 
after  his  death,  and  I  only  mention  it  now  because 
she  who  received  it  is  no  more,  and  those  few  who 
survive  her  would,  I  know,  gladly  contribute  any  thing 
that  would  honor  the  memory  of  their  old  friend.  What 
added  to  the  generosity  of  this  little  offering  was,  that 
he  was  then  about  to  become  a  father,  and  had  but  little 
prospect  of  increasing  his  means. 

Another  instance  of  his  generosity  at  that  time  was 
in  behalf  of  Mr.  Leyden,  who,  born,  a  poor  shepherd-boy 
in  Teviotdale,  had  become  so  remarkable  by  his  learn 
ing,  that  an  effort  was  made  by  subscription  to  enable 


30  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

him  to  attend  the  College  classes  in  Edinburgh,  where 
f  he  made  the  most  astonishing  progress  in  almost  every 
branch  of  knowledge  taught  there.  Having  obtained, 
through  Mr.  Dundas,  an  appointment  to  India,  he  was 
quite  unable  to  accomplish  his  outfit.  Sir  Walter  Scott 
and  my  father,  and  a  few  others,  were  chiefly  instru 
mental  in  effecting  it,  the  latter  contributing  £40  out  of 
his  very  small  means.  Mr.  Lcyden  afterward  died  in 
India. 

About  this  period  Lord  Holland,  with  whom  my  fa 
ther  had  been  slightly  acquainted,  wrote  to  ask  if  lie 
could  recommend  any  clever  young  medical  man  to  ac 
company  him  to  Spain,  where  he  was  going.  My  father 
had  the  pleasure  of  recommending  his  friend  Mr.  Allen, 
whose  high  character  and  talents  were  so  valued  at  Hol 
land  House,  that  he  never  after  left  it,  but  remained 
there  even  after  Lord  Holland's  death,  and  died  loved, 
honored,  and  respected  by  the  whole  of  Lord  Holland's 
family. 

As  the  time  approached  for  the  birth  of  his  child,  he 
constantly  expressed  his  wish,  first,  that  it  might  be  a 
daughter,  and  secondly,  that  she  might  be  born  with 
one  eye,  that  he  might  never  lose  her.  The  daughter 
came  in  due  time,  according  to  his  wish,  but,  unfortu 
nately,  with  two  eyes ;  however,  in  spite  of  this  unpro- 
pitious  circumstance,  she  was  very  graciously  received, 
and  the  nurse,  to  her  horror,  during  five  minutes'  absence, 
found  he  had  stolen  her  from  the  nursery  a  few  hours 
after  she  was  born,  to  introduce  her  in  triumph  to  Jef 
frey  and  the  future  Edinburgh  Reviewers. 

Being  now  in  possession  of  a  daughter  with  two  eyes, 
it  became  necessary  to  give  her  a  name ;  and  nobody 
would  believe  the  meditations,  the  consultations,  and 
the  discussions  he  held  on  this  important  point.  At  last 
he  determined  to  invent  one,  and  Saba  was  the  result. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  31 

About  the  period  in  which  he  was  engaged  in  settling 
this  important  domestic  point,  he  was  likewise  employed 
in  arranging  with  Messrs.  Jeffrey,  Brougham,  Murray, 
and  his  other  friends,  the  preliminaries  of  that  periodical 
which,  under  the  name  of  the  "Edinburgh  Review," 
has  grown  into  such  importance,  lias  produced  such  use 
ful  results,  and  has  bestowed  on  its  chief  contributors  a 
European  reputation. 

lie  must  state  its  origin  and  results:  "Toward  the 
end  of  my  residence  in  Edinburgh,  Brougham,  Jeffrey, 
and  myself  happened  to  meet  in  the  eighth  or  ninth 
story  or  flat  in  Buccleugh  Place,  the  then  elevated  resi 
dence  of  Mr.  Jeffrey.  I  proposed  that  we  should  set 
up  a  Review ;  this  was  acceded  to  with  acclamation ;  I 
was  appointed  editor,  and  remained  long  enough,  in 
Edinburgh  to  edit  the  first  number  of  the  Review. 
The  motto  I  proposed  for  the  Review  was,  £  Tenui 
Musam  meditamur  avcnfi' — 'We  cultivate  literature  on 
a  little  oat-meal ;'  but  this  was  too  near  the  truth  to  be 
admitted,  so  we  took  our  present  grave  motto  from 
Publius  Syrus,  of  whom  none  of  us  had,  I  am  sure, 
read  a  single  line ;  and  so  began  what  has  since  turned 
out  to  be  a  very  important  and  able  journal.  When  I 
left  Edinburgh  it  fell  into  the  stronger  hands  of  Lords 

O  O 

Jeffrey  and  Brougham,   and  reached  the  highest  point 
of  popularity  and  success.''* 

"  To  appreciate  the  value  of  the  Edinburgh  Review, 

*  A  distinguished  periodical,  speaking  of  the  Edinburgh  Review, 
says  :  "  The  world  will  long  look  to  this  as  to  the  opening  of  an  import 
ant  era  in  English  literary  history,  for  then,  so  to  say,  was  founded 
an  empire  of  criticism,  wider  in  its  objects,  more  vigorous  in  its  pro 
visions,  more  perfect  in  its  administrative  machinery,  than  any  of  the 
dynasty  which  had  flourished  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  cause 
of  tolerance  without  licentiousness,  and  philanthropy  without  cant,  was 
substantially  aided  by  its  exertions  and  the  attention  they  commanded. 
If  the  good  done  thereby  should  be  apportioned  out,  a  large  share 
would  fall  to  the  Ilev.  Sydney  Smith." 


32  MEMOIR  OF   THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

the  state  of  England  at  the  period  when  that  journal 
began  should  be  had  in  remembrance.  The  Catholics 
were  not  emancipated.  The  Corporation  and  Test  Acts 
were  unrepealed.  The  Game-laws  were  horribly  oppres 
sive  ;  steel-traps  and  spring-guns  were  set  all  over  the 
country ;  prisoners  tried  for  their  lives  could  have  no 
counsel.  Lord  Eldon  and  the  Court  of  Chancery  pressed 
heavily  on  mankind.  Libel  was  punished  by  the  most 
cruel  and  vindictive  imprisonments.  The  principles  of 
political  economy  were  little  understood.*  The  laws  of 
debt  and  conspiracy  were  upon  the  worst  footing.  The 
enormous  wickedness  of  the  slave-trade  was  tolerated. 
A  thousand  evils  were  in  existence,  which  the  talents 
of  good  and  able  men  have  since  lessened  or  removed ; 
and  these  efforts  have  been  not  a  little  assisted  by  the 
honest  boldness  of  the  Edinburgh  Review." 

To  estimate  justly  my  father's  moral  courage  in  pro 
jecting  and  contributing  to  such  a  Review,  not  only  the 
personal  risk  to  which  those  who  expressed  liberal  opin 
ions  were  exposed  (of  which  nothing  gives  a  more  vivid 
impression  than  the  third  volume  of  Mr.  Fox's  letters, 
just  published),  should  be  taken  into  consideration,  but 
his  profession,  and  the  corrupt  state  of  that  profession 
at  this  period.  As  this  is  a  subject  of  which  1  am  quite 
incompetent  to  speak,  I  shall  quote  a  short  passage 
from  a  remarkable  article  on  Church  Parties  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  which  gives  a  very  striking  descrip 
tion  of  it.  "  The  thermometer  of  the  Church  of  En 
gland  sank  to  its  lowest  point  in  the  first  thirty  years 
of  George  III.  Unbelieving  bishops,  and  a  slothful 
clergy,  had  succeeded  in  driving  from  the  Church  the 

*  "  In  a  scarcity  which  occurred  little  more  than  twenty  years  ago? 
every  judge  (except  the  Chancellor  and  Sergeant  Runnington),  when 
they  charged  the  Grand  Jury,  attributed  the  scarcity  to  the  combina 
tions  of  the  farmers.  Such  doctrines  would  not  now  be  tolerated  in 
the  mouth  of  a  school-boy." 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  33 

faith  and  zeal  of  Methodism  which  Wesley  had  organ 
ized  within  her  pale.  The  spirit  was  expelled  and  the 
dregs  remained.  That  was  the  age  when  jobbery  and 
corruption,  long  supreme  in  the  State,  had  triumphed 
over  the  virtue  of  the  Church  ;  when  the  money-changers 
not  only  entered  the  temple,  but  drove  out  the  worship 
ers  ;  when  ecclesiastical  revenues  were  monopolized  by 
wealthy  pluralists ;  when  the  name  of  curate  lost  its 
legal  meaning,  and,  instead  of  denoting  the  incumbent 
of  a  living,  came  to  signify  the  deputy  of  an  absentee." 

The  Dean  of  St.  Paul's  and  others  have  spoken  of 
the  remarkable  increase  in  vigor  of  style  and  boldness 
of  illustration  in  my  father's  writings  as  he  advanced 
in  years ;  but  I  have  seldom  seen  it  noticed,  except  in 
a  very  clever  sketch  of  him  written  by  some  friend  soon 
after  his  death,  that  he  had  no  youth  in  his  writings ; 
no  period  of  those  crude,  extravagant  theoretical  opin 
ions,  with  which  the  French  Revolution  had  infected 
society  to  a  degree  of  which  we  can  hardly  now  form 
any  estimate ;  though  it  is  alluded  to  in  almost  every 
publication  of  the  times. 

A  letter  from  Mr.  Montagu  to  Mr.  Mackintosh,  given 
in  the  Life  of  his  father  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  de 
scribes  this  vividly :  "  At  this  time,  the  wild  opinions 
which  prevailed  at  the  commencement  of  the  French 
Revolution  misled  most  of  us  who  were  not  as  wise  as 
your  father,  and  he  did  not  wholly  escape  their  fascina 
ting  influence.  The  prevalent  doctrines  were,  that  man 
was  so  benevolent  as  to  wish  only  the  happiness  of  his 
fellow-creatures,  so  intellectual  as  to  be  able  readily  to 
discover  what  was  best,  and  so  far  above  the  power 
of  temptation  as  never  to  be  drawn  by  any  allurements 
from  the  paths  of  virtue.  Gratitude  was  said  to  be  a 
vice,  marriage  an  improper  restraint,  law  an  imposition, 
and  lawyers  aiders  of  fraud.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to 


84  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

eonceive  the  extensive  influence  which  these  visions 
had  on  society." 

"Yet  in  the  midst  of  this"  (continues  the  writer  to 
whom  I  have  alluded)  "  Sydney  Smith  showed,  from 
the  outset,  a  singular  union  of  courage  and  good  sense, 
without  a  tincture  of  the  extravagance  by  which,  in  so 
many  young  men  of  ability,  they  were  at  that  time  ac 
companied.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  embrace  and  avow 
a  sound  principle,  however  obnoxious ;  but  neither  en 
thusiasm  or  party  spirit  could  carry  him  a  hairs-breadth 
beyond  what  his  judgment  approved." 

He  seems  to  have  discerned,  in  the  first  blush  of 
youth,  that  true  liberty  was  never  in  such  danger  of 
destruction  as  when  seized  by  the  rude  hands  of  her 
intemperate  and  unenlightened  worshipers ;  and  that 
true  religion  was  never  in  such  peril  of  being  brought 
into  ridicule  and  contempt,  as  when  disfigured  by  the 
indiscreet  zeal  of  ignorance  and  fanaticism.  These  con 
victions  will,  I  think,  be  seen  to  pervade  all  his  works, 
and  even  his  correspondence — to  have  been  the  great 
incentives  under  which  he  labored  to  open  the  eyes  of 
our  rulers,  under  which  he  endeavored  to  promote  re 
forms  at  their  legitimate  source,  and  to  ward  off  those 
horrors  which  the  long  neglect  of  reform  had  so  recently 
produced  in  France.  Speaking  of  reforms,  in  one  of  his 
early  letters,  he  says:  "  What  I  want  to  see  the  State  do, 
is  to  listen  in  these  sad  times  to  some  of  its  numerous 
enemies.  Why  not  do  something  for  the  Catholics,  and 
scratch  them  off  the  list  ?  then  the  Dissenters,  a  mitiga 
tion  of  the  Game-laws,  etc.,  any  thing  that  would  show 
the  Government  to  the  people  in  some  other  attitude 
than  that  of  taxing,  punishing,  and  restraining."  It  is 
curious,  in  going  through  his  writings,  to  observe  that 
v  there  is  scarcely  any  one  principle  he  has  advocated, 
with  the  exception  of  the  payment  of  the  Catholic 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  35 

I 

clergy,  that  has  not  been  granted  "bit  by  bit ;  and,  as 
my  father  says,  after  many  throes  and  struggles,  and 
hard-fought  battles,  that  justice  has  been  reluctantly 
conceded  in  the  midst  of  fear  and  degradation,  often 
when  it  was  too  late,  which,  had  it  been  yielded  in 
times  of  peace  and  strength,  would  have  prevented 
many  of  the  miseries  the  last  forty  years  have  witness 
ed  in  Ireland,  and  the  many  turmoils  that  have  at  vari 
ous  times  agitated  this  country,  and  placed  it  on  the 
verge  of  revolution.  "  In  this  way  peace  was  conclud 
ed  with  America,  arid  emancipation  granted  to  the  Cath 
olics  ;  and  in  this  way  the  war  of  complexion  will  be 
•-finished  in  the  West  Indies."'  And  again,  lie  says: 
"  Most  of  the  concessions  which  have  been  given  to  Ire 
land,  have  been  given  in  fear.  Ireland  would  have  been  f 
lost  to  this  country,  if  the  British  Legislature  had  not, 
with  all  the  rapidity  and  precipitation  of  the  truest  panic, 
passed  those  Acts  which  Ireland  did  not  ask,  but  de 
manded,  in  the  times  of  her  armed  association.7'  Yet 
now  those  measures  are  so  confirmed  by  the  general 
sanction  of  society,  that  it  seems  almost  trite  and  com 
monplace  to  allude  to  them. 

I  shall  leave  my  father  to  paint  the  fate  of  those  who 
ventured  to   maintain   such   opinions  at  the  period  ot  .^ 
which  I  am  speaking. 

"From  the  beginning  of  the  century  (about  which 
time  the  Review  began),  to  the  death  of  Lord  Liver 
pool,  was  an  awful  period  for  those  who  ventured  to 
maintain  liberal  opinions  ;  and  who  were  too  honest  to 
sell  them  for  the  ermine  of  the  judge,  or  the  lawn  of  the 
prelate.  A  long  and  hopeless  career  in  your  profession, 
the  chuckling  grin  of  noodles,  the  sarcastic  leer  of  the 
genuine  political  rogue ;  prebendaries,  deans,  bishops 
made  over  your  head ;  reverend  renegades  advanced  to 
the  highest  dignities  of  the  Church,  for  helping  to  rivet 


36  MEMOIR  OF  .THE-  -K3S.  .'SYDNEY   SMITH. 

the  fetters  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  Dissenters ;  and 
no  more  chance  of  a  Whig  administration  than  of  a 
thaw  in  Zembla.  These  were  the  penalties  exacted  for 
liberality  of  opinion  at  that  period,  and  not  only  was 
there  no  pay,  but  there  were  many  stripes." 

i  "It  is  always  considered  a  piece  of  impertinence  in 
England  if  a  man  of  less  than  two  or  three  thousand  a 
year  has  any  opinions  at  all  on  important  subjects; 
and  in  addition  he  was  sure  to  be  assailed  with  all  the 
Billingsgate  of  the  French  Revolution — Jacobin,  leveler, 
atheist,  Socinian,  incendiary,  regicide,  were  the  gentlest 
appellations  used ;  and  any  man  who  breathed  a  syl 
lable  against  the  senseless  bigotry  of  the  two  Georges, 
or  hinted  at  the  abominable  tyranny  and  persecution  ex 
ercised  against  Catholic  Ireland,  was  shunned  as  unfit 
for  the  relations  of  social  life.  Not  a  murmur  against 
any  abuse  was  permitted ;  to  say  a  word  against  the 
suitorcide  delays  of  the  Court  of  Chancery,*  or  the 
cruel  'punishments  of  the  game-laws,  or  against  any 
abuse  which  a  rich  man  inflicted  and  a  poor  man  suf 
fered,  was  treason  against  the/  plousiocracy,  and  was 
bitterly  and  steadily  resented.  Lord  Grey  had  not  then 
taken  off  the  bearing-rein  from  the  English  people,  as 
Sir  Francis  Head  has  now  done  from  horses." 

My  father  speaks  of  himself  as  having  a  passionate 
,love  of  common  justice  and  common  sense.      He  says, 

*  He  says,  on  this  subject,  in  his  speech  on  the  He  form  Bill:  "Look 
at  the  gigantic  Brougham,  sworn  in  at  twelve,  and  before  six  o'clock 
has  a  bill  on  the  table  abolishing  the  abuses  of  a  court  which  has  been 
the  curse  of  England  for  centuries.  For  twenty-five  long  years  did 
Lord  Eldon  sit  in  the  court,  surrounded  with  misery  and  sorrow,  which 
he  never  held  np  a  finger  to  alleviate.  The  widow  and  the  orphan 
cried  to  him  as  vainly  as  the  town-crier  cries  when  he  offers  a  small 
reward  for  a  full  purse ;  the  bankrupt  of  the  court  became  the  lunatic 
of  the  court ;  estates  mouldered  away  and  mansions  fell  down,  but  the 
fees  came  in  and  all  was  well ;  but  in  an  instant  the  iron  mace  of 
Brougham  shivered  to  atoms  this  house  of  fraud  and  of  delay. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  37 

speaking  of  justice,  "Truth  is  its  handmaid,  freedom 
is  its  child,  peace  is  its  companion,  safety  walks  in  its 
steps,  victory  follows  in  its  train ;  it  is  the  brightest 
emanation  from  the  Gospel,  it  is  the  greatest  attribute 
of  God.  It  is  that  centre  round  which  human  motives 
and  passions  turn;  and  justice,  sitting  on  high,  sees 
genius,  and  power,  and  wealth,  and  birth  revolving 
round  her  throne,  and  teaches  their  paths,  and  marks 
out  their  orbits,  and  warns  with  a  loud  voice,  and  rules 
with  a  strong  hand,  and  carries  order  and  discipline 
into  a  world  which  but  for  her  would  be  a  wild  waste 
of  passions." 

Entering  life  then  with  these  feelings,  we  shall,  I 
think,  best  find  their  fruits  by  following  the  efforts  of 
his  pen  through  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  the  Edin 
burgh  Review.  I  have  been  told  that  I  ought  to  give 
some  analysis  of  them  here ;  but  they  are  now  before 
the  public  in  such  various  forms,  are  so  well  known, 
and,  after  various  trials,  I  find  them  so  much  injured 
by  any  attempt  to  condense  them,  that  I  shall  make 
his  friend,  Lord  Monteagle,  speak  for  me  (as  he  states 
in  a  few  lines  what  it  would  have  cost  me  many  pages 
to  tell),  and  shall  merely  content  myself  with  shortly 
enumerating  what  were  the  subjects  that  occupied  my 
father's  thoughts  and  employed  his  pen  during  so  large 
a  portion  of  his  life ;  a  pen  which,  I  think  I  may  ven 
ture  to  assert,  was  never  sullied  by  private  passion  or 
private  interest,  never  degraded  by  an  impure  or  un 
worthy  motive,  and,  with  all  its  unexampled  powers  of 
sarcasm,  never  wounding  but  for  the  public  good. 

Lord  Monteagle  says:  "Looking  at  all  he  did,  and 
the  way  in  which  he  did  it,  it  must  be  an  inexpressible 
pleasure  to  all  who  knew,  valued,  and  loved  him,  to 
observe  that  there  was  scarcely  one  question  in  which 
the  moral,  the  intellectual,  social,  or  even  physical  well- 


38  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

being  of  his  fellow-men  were  concerned,  to  the  advance 
ment  of  which  he  has  not  endeavored  to  contribute." 

Some  of  his  earliest  efforts  seem  to  have  been  directed 
to  subjects  more  immediately  belonging  to  his  profes 
sion,  such  as  the  use  and  abuse  of  the  pulpit  for  polit 
ical  subjects,  and  the  very  inefficient  state  of  pulpit  elo 
quence.  He  touches  on  clerical  reforms ;  he  endeavors 
to  protect  the  curates  and  inferior  clergy,  and  to  restrain 
the  increasing  power  of  the  bishops,  or  rather  to  define 
those  powers  by  laws,  not  leaving  them  dependent  on 
the  caprice  of  individual  character  or  prejudice,  as  they 
then  were.  Toleration,  from  every  motive,  private,  po 
litical,  and  religious,  he  inculcates  on  all  occasions  and 
in  every  form ;  and,  as  connected  with  and  mainly  de 
pending  on  this,  no  subject  more  earnestly  or  frequently 
occupied  his  thoughts  than  the  state  of  Ireland. 

Education,  as  existing  in  this  country  in  every  class 
and  in  both  sexes,  claimed  his  attention.  The  injurious 
effects  of  Methodism  and  fanaticism  on  true  religion  in 
this  country ;  the  infinite  importance  of  correcting  vice 
in  such  a  manner  as  should  not  produce  hatred  to  vir 
tue  ;  the  danger  of  religious  wars,  or  of  the  total  loss 
of  our  Indian  possessions  from  the  injudicious  attempts 
at  conversion  by  men  totally  unfitted  for  so  important  a 
work ;  the  injuries  we  were  inflicting  011  some  of  our 
finest  colonies  by  bad  governors  and  worse  laws — all 
these  he  describes  and  deprecates.  He  found  in  the 
cell  of  the  lunatic  chains,  darkness,  terror,  cruelty, 
every  thing  that  unrestrained  power  and  human  pas 
sions  could  add  of  horror  to  that  heaviest  of  God's  afflic 
tions,  and  he  brought  into  public  notice  the  mild  and 
humane  treatment  of  the  Quakers  and  its  beneficial 
effects.  He  examined  the  state  of  our  jails ;  he  read 
the  reports  of  good  and  laborious  men  who  had  dedi 
cated  much  time  and  attention  to  the  subject,  "but  men 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  39 

whom  the  fat  and  sleek  people,  tlie  enjoy ers,  the  mump- 
simus,  the  well-as-we-are  people  of  the  world,  "had  con 
trived  to  keep  down  and  hide  from  the  public  eye ;  and 
he  endeavored  to  convince  the  unsuspecting  world  that 
we  were  paying  and  nourishing  in  every  county  of  En 
gland  a  public  school  for  the  instruction  and  encourage 
ment  of  profligacy  and  vice :  no  order,  no  division,  no 
public  eye ;  the  innocent  with  the  guilty ;  youth  just 
tottering  on  the  threshold  of  sin,  living  with  and  learn 
ing  from  the  most  hardened  profligates ;  punishments 
inflicted  before  trial  at  the  caprice  of  the  magistrate  or 
governor ;  and  many  other  evils,  moral  as  well  as  phys 
ical,  winch  it  only  wanted  the  public  eye  and  public  at 
tention  to  correct  and  improve. 

At  a  time  when  the  greater  part  of  the  Bench,  as  well 
as  the  Bar,  with  some  noble  exceptions,  were  opposed 
strongly  to  any  change  in  our  criminal  procedure,  he 
looked  with  horror  at  the  scenes  he  witnessed  in  our 
courts  of  law,  and  the  judicial  murders  that  he  felt  must 
often  occur  under  such  a  system ;  and  he  pleaded  the 
cause  of  the  poor  unprotected  prisoner  in  language  so 
earnest  and  so  forcible,  that  it  may,  I  hope,  entitle  him 
to  share  with  his  great  friends,  Sir  S.  Eomilly  and  Sir 
J.  Mackintosh,  the  merit  of  having  aided  in  that  great 
work  of  mercy  they  fought  for  so  long  and  so  ably,  and 
the  prisoner  yet  unborn  may  live  to  bless  their  names. 

Though  living  in  the  midst  of  large  landed  proprie 
tors,  all  zealous  in  the  preservation  of  their  game,  the 
cruelty,  injustice,  and  increasing  severity  of  the  Game- 
laws,*  and  their  oppressive  arid  demoralizing  effects  on 
the  poor,  frequently  occupied  his  attention  and  excited 
his  most  earnest  opposition.  The  perplexing,  but,  as 
he  says,  most  trite  of  subjects,  the  Poor-laws,  occupied 

*  In  the  course  of  the  preceding  year  no  fewer  than  12,000  persons 
were  committed  for  offenses  against  the  Game-laws. 


40  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

his  thoughts ;  though,  I  fear,  with  as  little  result  as  lias 
generally  been  produced  by  all  the  thought  that  has 
been  expended  on  this  most  difficult  question. 

"Thinking  (as  he  says)  the  United  States  the  most 
magnificent  picture  of  human  happiness,"  and  feeling 
the  importance  of  the  great  political  experiments  that 
were  going  on  there,  he  endeavored  to  bring  forward 
and  attract  public  attention  to  both  their  merits  and  de 
fects,  urging  America  not  to  abuse  the  advantages  she 
possessed,  inciting  Europe  to  profit  by  the  example  she 
set,  and  concluding  by  warning  her,  in  a  well-known 
passage,  against  a  taste  for  military  glory. 

These,  I  think,  were  among  the  most  important  sub 
jects  he  treated  of;  but  there  were  many  others  of  a 
lighter  character,  which  he  handled  always  with  the 
same  objects  in  view — to  promote  truth  and  expose  evil. 
He  leads  us  amusingly  through  the  wanderings  of  Wa- 
terton ;  he  unmasks  the  mischievous  sophistry  of  Ma 
dame  de  StaeTs  "Delphine;"  he  shows  the  compara 
tively  innocuous  effects  which  the  plain,  unvarnished 
exposure  of  vice  in  "Anastasius"  was  calculated  to 
produce ;  he  points  out  the  truth  of  the  social  picture 
given  in  "  Granby ;"  he  acts  as  middle-man  to  Bcn- 
tham ;  he  brings  out  to  public  notice,  from  the  mass  of 
blue-books  under  which  they  were  buried,  all  the  cruel 
ties  to  which  the  poor  climbing-boys  were  exposed  in 
sweeping  chimneys ;  he  points  out  the  utility  of  the 
Hamiltonian  system  in  diminishing  the  long  and  valu 
able  period  of  time  sacrificed  in  our  places  of  education 
to  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the  learned  languages. 
There  are  some  few  others  which  he  has  not  republished, 
no  longer  thinking  them  of  any  general  interest. 

I  am  anxious,  in  this  sketch,  not  to  be  thought  to 
attribute  an  undue  share  of  influence  to  my  father's 
efforts  for  the  public  good.  It  is  often  difficult  to  say 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  41 

who  gave  the  death-blow  to  an  abuse ;  and  my  father's 
blows,  all  will  admit,  were  no  light  ones  where  they 
fell ;  yet  he  was  but  one  of  the  many  wise  men  Avho 
have  used  their  talents  for  the  benefit  of  their  fellow- 
creatures,  arid  many  of  them  have  devoted  more  time 
and  attention  to  these  objects  than  my  father  was  eji- 
abled  to  do.  But  I  think  he  has  one  peculiarity  above 
almost  any  writer  of  his  day — that  of  attracting  public 
attention  ;  he  was  born  for  a  teacher  of  the  people,  and, 
as  Lord  Ashburton  says  in  his  striking  address  to  school 
masters,  "I  wish  to  familiarize  to  the  youngest  among 
you  this  important  truth,  that  no  knowledge,  however 
profound,  can  constitute  a  teacher.  A  teacher  must 
have  knowledge,  as  an  orator  must  have  knowledge,  as 
a  builder  must  have  materials ;  but  as,  in  choosing  the 
builder  of  my  house,  I  do  not  select  the  man  who  has 
the  most  materials  in  his  yard,  but  I  proceed  to  select 
him  by  reference  to  his  skill,  ingenuity,  and  taste ;  so 
also,  in  testing  an  orator  or  a  teacher,  I  satisfy  myself 
that  they  fulfill  the  comparatively  easy  condition  of  pos 
sessing  sufficient  materials  of  knowledge  with  which  to 
work;  I  look  then  to  those  high  and  noble  qualities 
which  are  the  characteristics  of  their  peculiar  calling. 
There  were  hundreds  at  Athens  who  knew  more  than 
Demosthenes,  many  more  that  knew  more  at  Rome  than 
Cicero,  but  there  was  but  one  Demosthenes  and  one 
Cicero."  So  I  think,  though  there  arc  hundreds  who 
have  known  more,  labored  more,  thought  more,  in  En 
gland,  yet  in  our  day  there  was  but  one  Sydney  Smith. 
He  was  a  sort  of  rough-rider  of  a  subject ;  sometimes 
originating,  but  more  frequently  taking  up  what  others 
had  for  years  been  stating  humbly,  or  timidly,  or  ob 
scurely,  or  lengthily,  or  imperfectly,  or  dully,  to  the 
world ;  extracting  at  once  its  essence,  unvailing  the  mo 
tives  of  his  opponents,  and  placing  his  case  clearly,  con- 


42  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

cisely,  simply,  eloquently,  boldly,  brightly  before  the 
public  eye.  Tims  the  subject  became  read,  thought  of, 
discussed,  and  often  acted  upon  by  thousands  of  per 
sons,  dispersed  over  various  parts  of  the  world.  This 
can  not  have  been  without  powerful  influence  on  the 
opinions  and  conduct  of  society. 

The  peculiar  talent  possessed  by  my  father  is  well  de 
scribed  in  a  sketch  by  a  personal  friend  of  considerable 
talent,  printed  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

"In  fact,  he  had  read  much,  and  always  with  the 
sincerest  desire  to  arrive  at  truth ;  and  if  he  lacked  that 
quality  of  intellect  which  is  capable  of  imparting  original 
views  on  profound  subjects,  no  man  was  ever  more  suc 
cessful  in  possessing  himself  of  the  results  of  other  men's 
thoughts,  and  in  diffusing  them  in  a  form  suited  to  the 
apprehension  of  ordinary  readers.  A  distinguished  schol 
ar  now  living,  writing  of  Sydney  Smith  to  a  friend,  in 
1840,  observes :  '  Ridicule  seems  to  me  to  be  admirably 
fitted  to  confound  fools  and  to  destroy  their  prejudices. 
It  is  not  needed  in  order  to  recommend  truth  to  wise 
men,  and  indeed,  from  its  generally  dealing  in  exagger 
ation  and  slight  misrepresentation,  is  likely  to  offend 
them.  It  is  his  mastery  of  ridicule  which  renders  Syd 
ney  Smith  so  powerful  as  a  diffuser  of  ideas,  for  in  order 
to  diffuse  widely  it  is  necessary  to  be  able  to  address 
fools.  His  powers  as  a  diffuser,  as  compared  with  the 
powers  of  a  great  inventor,  who  was  latterly  altogether 
wanting  in  the  diffusing  power,  are  well  shown  in  his 
article  on  Bentham's  Book  of  Fallacies  ;  indeed,  as  a 
diffuser  of  the  good  ideas  of  other  men,  I  do  not  know 
whether  he  ever  had  an  equal.' 

"When  the  imaginative  faculty  was  in  question,  how 
ever,  Sydney  Smith  was  creative  and  original  enough, 
God  knows.  When  in  good  spirits,  the  exuberance  of 
his  fancy  showed  itself  in  the  most  fantastic  images  and 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  43 

most  ingenious  absurdities,  till  his  hearers  and  himself 
were  at  times  fatigued  with  the  merriment  they  excited. 
He  had  the  art,  too,  of  divesting  personalities  of  vul 
garity,  and  not  unfrequently  was  the  object  of  his  wit 
seen  to  enjoy  the  exercise  of  it  quite  as  much  as  others ; 
in  fact,  many  persons  rather  lelt  it  as  a  compliment 
when  Sydney  singled  them  out  for  sport." 

In  another  sketch  of  my  father's  writings  I  have  met 
with  this  passage,  which  I  think  so  just  that  I  shall  in 
sert  it : 

"Few  men  could  write  with  his  disregard  of  common 
forms,  and  his  perfect  expression  of  individual  peculiar 
ities,  without  falling  into  coarseness  of  buffoonery ;  the 
writings  of  Sydney  are  free  from  all  vulgarities  usual  to 
the  familiar  writer.  The  great  peculiarity  of  his  works 
is  their  singular  blending  of  the  beautiful  witli  the 
ludicrous,  and  this  is  the  source  of  his  refinement ;  he 
is  keen  and  personal,  almost  fierce  and  merciless,  in  his 
attacks  on  public  abuses ;  he  has  no  check  on  his  humor 
from  authority  or  conventional  forms,  and  yet  he  very 
rarely  violates  good  taste ;  there  is  much  good-humor 
in  him  in  spite  of  his  severity :  it  would  be  difficult  to 
point  out  the  source  of  this  power  of  fascination,  but  it 
strikes  us  as  being  different  from  any  thing  else  we 
have  ever  seen." 


CHAPTER    III. 

Extracts  from  Lectures. — Preface  to  Sermons. — Analysis  of  Sermons. 
— Sermon  for  the  Blind. — Returns  to  Edinburgh. — Takes  Pupils. — 
Illness  of  Daughter. — Moral  Courage. — Studies  Medicine  and  Moral 
Philosophy. 

I  HATE  endeavored  in  the  last  chapter  (with  as  little 
commentary  as  possible)  to  give  a  short  sketch  of  the  most 
important  subjects  that  occupied  my  father's  thoughts, 
and  employed  his  pen,  during  twenty-eight  years  of  his 
life,  in  the  Edinburgh  Review. 

But  to  perform  my  task  properly,  I  ought  perhaps  to 
add  some  account  of  the  subject-matter  of  his  lectures 
and  sermons.  The  former  of  these,  if  done  at  all,  must 
be  done  by  an  abler  pen  than  mine ;  I  shall  therefore 
content  myself  with  only  two  extracts.  The  first  lias 
often  been  quoted,  not  only  for  its  beauty,  but  as  afford 
ing  a  specimen  of  the  high  moral  tone  which  pervades 
these  lectures ;  the  second  was  extracted  by  one  of  his 
earliest  college  associates  (and,  I  believe,  now  oldest 
friend  alive),  Mr.  Duncan,  and  sent  to  my  mother,  as 
giving  what  he  thought  the  best  description  of  my  fa 
ther  that  has  ever  been  written.  The  first  is  from  the 
Lecture  "On  the  Conduct  of  the  Understanding;"  the 
second  is  from  that  on  "Wit  and  Humor." 

"  Therefore,  when  I  say,  in  conducting  the  under 
standing,  love  knowledge  with  a  great  love,  with  a 
vehement  love,  with  a  love  coeval  with  life,  what  do  I 
say  but  love  innocence,  love  virtue,  love  purity  of  con 
duct,  love  that  which,  if  you  are  rich  and  powerful,  will 


MEMOIR  OF   THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  45 

sanctify  the  blind  fortune  which  has  made  you  so,  and 
make  men  call  it  justice  ?  Love  that  which,  if  you  arc 
poor,  will  render  your  poverty  respectable,  and  make 
the  proudest  feel  it  unjust  to  laugh  at  the  meanness 
of  your  fortunes.  Love  that  which  will  comfort  and 
adorn  you,  and  never  quit  you,  which  will  open  to  you 
the  kingdom  of  thought,  and  all  the  boundless  regions 
of  conception,  as  an  asylum  against  the  cruelty,  the  in 
justice,  and  the  pain  that  may  be  your  lot  in  this  out 
ward  world ;  that  which  will  make  your  motives  habitu 
ally  great  and  honorable,  and  light  up  in  an  instant  a 
thousand  noble  disdains  at  the  very  thought  of  mean 
ness  and  of  fraud. 

"Therefore,  if  any  young  man  has  embarked  his  life 
in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  let  him  go  on  without 
doubting  or  fearing  the  event ;  let  him  not  be  intimi 
dated  by  the  cheerless  beginnings  of  knowledge,  by  the 
darkness  from  which  she  springs,  by  the  difficulties 
which  hover  around  her,  by  the  wretched  habitation 
in  which  she  dwells,  by  the  want  and  sorrow  which 
sometimes  journey  in  her  train.  But  let  him  ever  fol 
low  her  as  an  angel  that  guards  him,  and  as  the  genius 
of  his  life.  She  will  bring  him  out  at  last  into  the 
light  of  day,  and  exhibit  him  to  the  world,  comprehen 
sive  in  acquirements,  fertile  in  resources,  rich  in  imagin 
ation,  strong  in  reasoning,  prudent  and  powerful  above 
his  fellows  in  all  the  relations  and  in  all  the  offices  of 
life." 


"  The  meaning  of  an  extraordinary  man  is,  that  he  is 
eight  men,  not  one  man ;  that  he  has  as  much  wit  as  if 
he  had  no  sense,  and  as  much  sense  as  if  he  had  no  wit ; 
that  his  conduct  is  as  judicious  as  if  he  were  the  dullest 
of  human  beings,  and  his  imagination  as  brilliant  as  if 
he  were  irretrievably  ruined.  But  when  wit  is  com- 


46  MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.    SYDNEY  SMITH. 

bined  with  sense  and  information;  when  it  is  softened 
by  benevolence  and  restrained  by  principle ;  when  it  is 
in  the  hands  of  a  man  who  can  use  it  and  despise  it ; 
who  can  be  witty  and  something  more  than  witty ;  who 
loves  honor,  justice,  decency,  good-nature,  morality,  and 
religion  ten  thousand  times  better  than  wit,  wit  is  then 
a  beautiful  and  delightful  part  of  our  nature. 

"  Genuine  and  innocent  wit  like  this  is  surely  the 
flavor  of  the  mind.  Man  could  direct  his  ways  by 
plain  reason,  and  support  his  life  by  tasteless  food;  but 
God  has  given  us  wit,  and  flavor,  and  brightness,  and 
laughter,  and  perfumes,  to  enliven  the  days  of  men's 
pilgrimage,  and  to  charm  his  pained  steps  over  the 
burning  marie." 

The  character  and  design  of  his  Sermons  will  perhaps 
be  best  explained  by  a  short  preface  he  published  as 
early  as  the  year  1801,  but  never  reprinted,  explaining 
his  reasons  for  the  course  he  has  taken ;  then  showing 
what  that  course  has  been,  and  giving  a  few  extracts 
from  his  sermons. 

"He  who  publishes  sermons  should  explain  whether 
he  publishes  speeches,  or  essays,  or  what  it  is  he  does 
publish ;  for  metaphysical  dissertations,  theological  po 
lemics,  Scripture  criticism,  historical  disquisition,  and 
moral  and  religious  doctrine,  and  exhortation,  are  all 
included  under  the  appellation  of  sermons.  Now  every 
work  should  be  tried  by  the  intentions  with  which  it 
was  written.  A  moral  sermon,  delivered  before  a  mix 
ed  audience  of  both  sexes,  would  be  very  bad,  if  it  con 
tained  a  profound  analysis  of  human  motives  and  ac 
tions  ;  and  such  an  analysis  should  never  be  attempted 
before  a  mixed  audience,  because  a  continued  attention 
to  a  difficult  subject  is  a  very  rare  quality,  which  the 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  47 

habits  of  the  mass  of  mankind  can  never  lead  them  to 
acquire.  Before  such  an  audience  all  these  sermons 
were  delivered,  and  whoever  does  me  the  honor  of  judg 
ing  of  them  at  all,  will,  I  hope,  do  me  the  justice  of 
judging  them  witli  a  relation  to  this  circumstance. 

"  The  clergy  have  at  all  times  complained  of  the 
decay  of  piety,  in  language  similar  to  that  which  they 
now  hold  from  the  pulpit.  The  best  way  of  bringing 
this  declamation  to  proof  is  to  look  into  the  inside  of 
our  churches,  and  to  remark  how  they  are  attended. 
In  London,  I  daresay,  there  arc  full  seven-tenths  of  the 
whole  population  who  hardly  ever  enter  a  place  of  wor 
ship  from  one  end  of  the  year  to  the  other.  At  the 
fashionable  end  of  the  town  the  congregations  are  al 
most  wholly  made  up  of  ladies,  and  there  is  an  appear 
ance  of  listlessncss,  indifference,  and  impatience,  very 
little  congenial  to  our  theoretical  ideas  of  a  place  of  wor 
ship.  In  the  country  villages  half  of  the  parishioners 
do  not  go  to  church  at  all,  and  almost  all,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  the  sick  and  old,  are  in  a  state  of  wretched 
ignorance  and  indifference  with  regard  to  all  religious 
opinions  whatever. 

"The  clergy  of  a  district  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln 
associated  lately  for  the  purpose  of  forming  an  estimate 
of  the  state  of  religion  within  their  own  limits.  The 
amount  of  the  population,  where  the  inquiry  was  set 
.-on  foot,  was  15,042.  It  was  found  that  the  average 
number  of  the  ordinary  congregations  was  4933,  and 
of  communicants  at  each  sacrament  1808  ;  so  that  not 
one  in  three  attended  divine  service,  nor  one  in  six  of 
the  adults  (who  amounted  to  11,282)  partook  of  the 
Sacrament. 

"Though  other  grave  and  important  causes  have  un 
questionably  contributed  very  largely  to  produce  this 
indifference,  which  is  by  no  means  necessarily  connect- 


48  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

ed  with  infidelity,  still,  I  am  afraid,  it  must  in  some 
little  degree  be  attributed  to  our  form  of  worship,  and 
to  the  clergy  themselves. 

"  That  the  attention  of  the  greater  part  of  an  au 
dience  can  be  kept  up,  through  many  repetitions,  in  a 
service  that  lasts  an  hour  and  a  half,  or  an  hour  and 
three-quarters,  is  as  much  to  be  wished  as  it  is  to  be 
little  expected.  Piety,  stretched  beyond  a  certain  point, 
is  the  parent  of  impiety.  By  attempting  to  keep  up  the 
fervor  of  devotion  for  so  long  a  time,  we  have  thinned 
our  churches,  and  driven  away  those  fluctuating,  luke 
warm  Christians  who  will  always  outnumber  the  zealous 
and  devout,  and  whom  it  should  be  our  first  object  to 
animate,  allure,  and  fix. 

"The  English  clergy,  though  upon  the  whole  a  very 
learned,  pious,  moral,  and  decent  body  of  men,  are  not 
very  remarkable  for  professional  activity ;  and  when 
they  have  discharged  the  formal  and  exacted  duties  of 
religion,  are  not  very  forward,  by  gratuitous  inspection 
and  remonstrance,  to  keep  alive  and  diffuse  a  due  sense 
of  religion  in  their  parishioners. 

"To  these  causes  may  be  added  the  low  state  of  pul 
pit  eloquence.  • 

"Preaching  has  become  a  by-word  for  long  and  dull 
conversation  of  any  kind  ;  and  whoever  wishes  to  imply, 
in  any  piece  of  writing,  the  absence  of  every  thing  agree 
able  and  inviting,  calls  it  a  sermon. 

"  One  reason  for  this  is  the  bad  choice  of  subjects  for 
the  pulpit.  The  clergy  are  allowed  about  twenty-six 
hours  every  year  for  the  instruction  of  their  fellow- 
creatures  ;  and  I  can  not  help  thinking  this  short  time 
had  better  be  employed  on  practical  subjects,  in  explain 
ing  and  enforcing  that  conduct  which  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  requires,  and  which  mere  worldly  happiness 
commonly  coincides  to  recommend.  These  are  the 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   KEV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  i'j 

topics  nearest  the  heart,  which  make  us  more  fit  for  this 
and  a  better  world,  and  do  all  the  good  that  sermons 
ever  will  do.  Critical  explanations  of  difficult  passages 
of  Scripture,  dissertations  on  the  doctrinal  and  mysteri 
ous  points  of  religion,  learned  investigations  of  the  mean 
ing  and  accomplishment  of  prophecies,  do  well  for  pub 
lication,  but  are  ungenial  to  the  habits  and  taste  of  a 
general  audience.  Of  the  highest  importance  they  arc  to 
those  who  can  defend  the  faith  and  study  it  profoundly ; 
but,  God  forbid  it  should  be  necessary  to  be  a  scholar,  or 
a  critic,  in  order  to  be  a  Christian.  To  the  multitude, 
whether  elegant  or  vulgar,  the  result  only  of  erudition,  cm- 
ployed  for  the  defense  of  Christianity,  can  be  of  any  con 
sequence  :  with  the  erudition  itself  they  can  not  meddle, 
and  must  be  fatigued  if  they  are  doomed  to  hear  it.  In 
every  congregation  there  are  a  certain  number  whom  prin 
ciple,  old  age,  or  sickness,  has  rendered  truly  devout ;  but 
in  preaching,  as  in  every  thing  else,  the  greater  number  of 
instances  constitute  the  rule,  and  the  lesser  the  exception. 

"  A  distinction  is  set  up,  with  the  usual  inattention  to 
the  meaning  of  words,  between  moral  and  religious  sub 
jects  of  discourse ;  as  if  every  moral  subject  must  not 
necessarily  be  a  Christian  subject.  If  Christianity  con 
cern  itself  with  our  present,  as  well  as  our  future  happi 
ness,  how  can  any  virtue,  or  the  doctrine  which  incul 
cates  it,  be  considered  as  foreign  to  our  sacred  religion  ? 
Has  our  Saviour  forbidden  justice — proscribed  mercy, 
benevolence,  and  good  faith  ?  or,  when  we  state  the  more 
sublime  motives  for  their  cultivation,  which  we  derive 
from  revelation,  why  are  we  not  to  display  the  temporal 
motives  also,  and  to  give  solidity  to  elevation  by  fixing 
piety  upon  interest  ? 

"  There  is  a  bad  taste  in  the  language  of  sermons 
evinced  by  a  constant  repetition  of  the  same  scriptural 
phrases,  which  perhaps  were  used  with  great  judg- 
.  1 .  — ( ! 


60  MEMOIR   OF   THE  KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

merit  two  hundred  years  ago,  but  are  now  become  so 
trite  that  they  may,  without  any  great  detriment,  be 
exchanged  for  others.  '  Putting  off  the  old  man — and 
putting  on  the  new  man,'  'The  one  thing  needful,' 
'The  Lord  hath  set  up  his  candlestick,'  'The  armor 
of  righteousness,'  etc.  etc.  etc.  etc.  The  sacred  Scrip 
tures  are  surely  abundant  enough  to  afford  us  the  same 
idea  with  some  novelty  of  language :  we  can  never  be 
driven,  from  the  penury  of  these  writings,  to  wear  and 
fritter  their  holy  language  into  a  perfect  cant,  which 
passes  through  the  ear  without  leaving  any  impression. 
"To  this  cause  of  the  unpopularity  of  sermons  may 
be  added  the  extremely  ungraceful  manner  in  which 
they  are  delivered.  The  English,  generally  remark 
able  for  doing  very  good  things  in  a  very  bad  manner, 
seem  to  have  reserved  the  maturity  and  plenitude  of 
their  awkwardness  for  the  pulpit.  A  clergyman  clings 
to  his  velvet  cushion  with  either  hand,  keeps  his  eye 
riveted  upon  his  book,  speaks  of  the  ecstasies  of  joy 
and  fear  with  a  voice  and  a  face  which  indicate  nei 
ther,  and  pinions  his  body  and  soul  into  the  same  atti 
tude  of  limb  and  thought,  for  fear  of  being  called  thea 
trical  and  affected.  The  most  intrepid  veteran  of  us 
all  dares  no  more  than  wipe  his  face  with  his  cambric 
sudarium ;  if,  by  mischance,  his  hand  slip  from  its  or 
thodox  gripe  of  the  velvet,  he  draws  it  back  as  from 
liquid  brimstone,  or  the  caustic  iron  of  the  law,  and 
atones  for  this  indecorum  by  fresh  inflexibility  and  more 
rigorous  sameness.  Is  it  wonder,  then,  that  every  semi- 
delirious  sectary  who  pours  forth  his  animated  non 
sense  with  the  genuine  look  and  voice  of  passion  should 
gesticulate  away  the  congregation  of  the  most  profound 
and  learned  divine  of  the  Established  Church,  and  in 
two  Sundays  preach  him  bare  to  the  very  sexton? 
'  Why  are  we  natural  every  where  but  in  the  pulpit  ? 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  ,31 

No  man  expresses  warm  and  animated  feelings  any 
where  else,  with  his  mouth  alone,  but  with  his  whole 
body;  he  articulates  with  every  limb,  and  talks  from 
head  to  foot  with  a  thousand  voices.  Why  this.holo- 
plexia  on  sacred  occasions  alone  ?  Why  call  in  the  aid 
of  paralysis  to  piety  ?  Is  it  a  rule  of  oratory  to  bal 
ance  the  style  against  the  subject,  and  to  handle  the 
most  sublime  truths  in  the  dullest  language  and  the 
driest  manner?  Is  sin  to  be  taken  from  men,  as  Eve 
was  from  Adam,  by  casting  them  into  a  deep  slumber  V 
Or  from  what  possible  perversion  of  common  sense  are 
we  all  to  look  like  field-preachers  in  Zembla,  holy  lumps 
of  ice  numbed  into  quiescence,  and  stagnation,  and 
mumbling  ? 

u  It  is  theatrical  to  use  action,  and  it  is  Methodistical 
to  use  action. 

"But  we  have  cherished  contempt  for  sectaries,  and 
persevered  in  dignified  tameness  so  long,  that  while 
we  are  freezing  common  sense  for  large  salaries  in 
stately  churches,  amidst  whole  acres  and  furlongs  of 
empty  pews,  the  crowd  are  feasting  on  ungrammatical 
fervor  and  illiterate  animation  in  the  crumbling  hov 
els  of  Methodists.  If  influence  over  the  imagination 
can  produce  these  powerful  effects  ;  if  this  be  the  chain 
by  which  the  people  are  dragged  captive  at  the  wheel 
of  enthusiasm,  why  are  we,  who  are  rocked  in  the  cra 
dle  of  ancient  genius,  wTho  hold  in  one  hand  the  book 
of  the  wisdom  of  God,  and  in  the  other  grasp  that 
eloquence  which  ruled  the  Pagan  world,  why  are  we 
never  to  rouse,  to  appeal,  to  inflame,  to  break  through 
every  barrier,  up  to  the  very  haunts  and  chambers  of 
the  soul  ?  If  the  vilest  interest  upon  earth  can  daily 
call  forth  all  the  powers  of  the  mind,  are  we  to  harangue 
on  public  order,  and  public  happiness,  to  picture  a  re 
uniting  world,  a  resurrection  of  souls,  a  rekindling  of 


62  MEMOIR   OF  THE  KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

ancient  affections,  the  dying  day  of  heaven  and  of 
earth,  and  to  unvail  the  throne  of  God,  with  a  wretched 
apathy  which  we  neither  feel  nor  show  in  the  most 
trifling  concerns  of  life?  This  surely  can  "be  neither 
decency  nor  piety,  Ibut  ignorant  shame,  boyish  bash- 
fulness,  luxurious  indolence,  or  any  thing  but  propriety 
and  sense.  There  is,  I  grant,  something  discouraging 
at  present  to  a  man  of  sense  in  the  sarcastical  phrase 
of  popular  preacher;  but  I  am  not  entirely  without 
hope  that  the  time  may  come  when  energy  in  the  pulpit 
will  be  no  longer  considered  as  a  mark  of  superficial 
understanding ;  when  animation  and  affectation  will  be 
separated ;  when  churches  will  cease  (as  Swift  says)  to 
be  public  dormitories ;  and  sleep  be  no  longer  looked 
upon  as  the  most  convenient  vehicle  of  good  sense. 

"I  knoAV  well  that  out  often  thousand  orators  by  far 
the  greater  number  must  be  bad,  or  none  could  be  good ; 
but  by  becoming  sensible  of  the  mischief  we  have  done, 
and  are  doing,  we  may  all  advance  a  proportional  step ; 
the  worst  may  become  what  the  best  are,  and  the  best 
better. 

"  There  is  always  a  want  of  grandeur  in  attributing 
great  events  to  little  causes ;  but  this  is  in  some  small 
degree  compensated  for  by  truth.  I  am  convinced  we 
should  do  no  great  injury  to  the  cause  of  religion  if 
we  remembered  the  old  combination  of  arce  et  foci, 
and  kept  our  churches  a  little  warmer.  An  experi 
enced  clergyman  can  pretty  well  estimate  the  num 
ber  of  his  audience  by  the  indications  of  a  sensible 
thermometer.  The  same  blighting  wind  chills  piety 
which  is  fatal  to  vegetable  life ;  yet  our  power  of  en 
countering  weather  varies  with  the  object  of  our  har 
dihood  ;  we  are  very  Scythians  when  pleasure  is  con 
cerned,  and  Sybarites  when  the  bell  summons  us  to 
church. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEV.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  53 

"  No  reflecting  man  can  ever  wisli  to  adulterate  manly 
piety  (the  parent  of  all  that  is  good  in  the  world)  with 
mummery  and  parade.  But  we  are  strange,  very 
strange  creatures,  and  it  is  "better  perhaps  not  to  place 
too  much  confidence  in  our  reason  alone.  If  any  thing, 
there  is,  perhaps,  too  little  pomp  and  ceremony  in  our 
worship,  instead  of  too  much.  We  quarreled  with  the 
Roman  Catholic  church,  in  a  great  hurry  and  a  great 
passion,  and  furious  with  spleen  ;  clothed  ourselves  with 
sackcloth,  because  she  was  habited  in  brocade ;  rush 
ing,  like  children,  from  one  extreme  to  another,  and 
blind  to  all  medium  between  complication  and  barren 
ness,  formality  and  neglect.  I  am  very  glad  to  find  we 
are  calling  in  more  and  more  the  aid  of  music  to  our 
service.  In  London,  where  it  can  be  commanded,  good 
music  has  a  prodigious  effect  in  filling  a  church ;  organs 
have  been  put  up  in  various  churches  in  the  country, 
and,  as  I  have  been  informed,  with  the  best  possible 
effect.  Of  what  value,  it  may  be  asked,  arc  auditors  who 
come  there  from  such  motives  ?  But  our  first  business 
seems  to  be,  to  bring  them  there  from  any  motive  which 
is  not  undignified  and  ridiculous,  and  then  to  keep  them 
there  from  a  good  one  :  those  who  come  for  pleasure  may 
remain  for  prayer. 

"Pious  and  worthy  clergymen  are  ever  apt  to  imag 
ine  that  mankind  are  what  they  ought  to  be — to  mistake 
the  duty  for  the  fact — to  suppose  that  religion  can  never 
weary  its  votaries — that  the  same  novelty  and  ornament 
which  arc  necessary  to  enforce  every  temporal  doctrine 
are  wholly  superfluous  in  religious  admonition  ;  and  that 
the  world  at  large  consider  religion  as  the  most  important 
of  all  concerns,  merely  because  it  is  so  :  whereas,  if  we 
refer  to  facts,  the  very  reverse  appears  to  be  the  case. 
Every  consideration  influences  the  mind  in  a  compound 
ratio  of  the  importance  of  the  effects  which  it  involves, 


54:  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

and  their  proximity.  A  man  who  was  sure  to  die  a 
death  of  torture  in  ten  years  would  think  more  of  the 
most  trifling  gratification  or  calamity  of  the  day  than  of 
his  torn  flesh  and  twisted  nerves  years  hence.  If  we 
were  to  read  the  gazette  of  a  naval  victory  from  the  pul 
pit,  we  should  be  dazzled  with  the  eager  eyes  of  our  aud 
ience — they  would  sit  through  an  earthquake  to  hear  us. 
The  cry  of  a  child,  the  fall  of  a  "book,  the  most  trifling 
occurrence  is  sufficient  to  dissipate  religious  thought, 
and  to  introduce  a  more  willing  train  of  ideas :  a  spar 
row  fluttering  about  the  church  is  an  antagonist  which 
the  most  profound  theologian  in  Europe  is  wholly  unable 
to  overcome.  A  clergyman  has  so  little  previous  dispo 
sition  to  attention  in  his  favor,  that,  without  the  utmost 
efforts,  he  can  neither  excite  it  or  preserve  it  when  ex 
cited.  It  is  his  business  to  awaken  mankind  by  every 
means  in  his  power,  and  to  show  them  their  true  inter 
est.  If  he  despise  energy  of  manner  and  labor  of  com 
position,  from  a  conviction,  that  his  audience  are  willing, 
and  that  his  subject  alone  will  support  him,  he  will  only 
add  lethargy  to  languor,  and  confirm  the  drowsiness  of 
his  hearers  by  becoming  a  great  example  of  sleep  him 
self. 

"  That  many  greater  causes  are  at  work  to  under 
mine  religion  I  seriously  believe ;  but  I  shall  probably 
be  laughed  at  when  I  say  that  warm  churches,  solemn 
music,  animated  preaching  upon  practical  subjects,  and 
a  service  some  little  abridged,  would  be  no  contemptible 
seconds  to  the  just,  necessary,  and  innumerable  invec 
tives  which  have  been  leveled  against  Rousseau,  Vol 
taire,  D'Alembert,  and  the  whole  pandemonium  of  those 
martyrs  to  atheism  who  toiled  with  such  laborious  mal 
ice,  and  suffered  odium  with  such  inflexible  profligacy, 
for  the  wretchedness  and  despair  of  their  fellow-creat 
ures. 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  55 

44 1  have  merely  expressed  what  appears  to  me  to  be 
the  truth  in  these  remarks.  I  hope  I  shall  not  give  of 
fense  ;  I  am  sure  I  do  not  mean  to  do  it.  Some  allow 
ance  should  be  made  for  the  severity  of  censure  when 
the  provident  satirist  furnishes  the  raw  material  for  his 
own  art,  and  commits  every  fault  which  he  blames." 

Entering  on  his  ministry,  then,  with  these  views,  we 
shall,  I  think,  find  that  my  father's  religion  is  tinctured 
in  great  measure  by  his  character — it  has  nothing  intol 
erant,  repulsive,  or  morose  in  his  hands.  He  first  seeks 
to  inspire  the  love  of  God,  by  painting  the  world  over 
flowing  with  beauties  of  form,  color,  sight,  taste,  smell, 
feeling ;  the  mind  of  man  filled  with  genius,  fancy,  wit, 
imagination,  eloquence — properties  and  feelings  totally 
unnecessary  to  the  mere  bare  cold  existence  that  might 
have  been  the  lot  of  man,  but  bestowed  upon  him  in 
such  variety  and  profusion  as  almost  baffles  the  com 
prehension,  and  shows  the  boundless  love  of  the  Creator 
in  placing  such  happiness  within  the  reach  of  his  creat 
ures. 

This  feeling  is  evinced  in  the  following  passage,  taken 
from  a  sermon  on  "  The  Immortality  of  the  Soul;"  and 
will  be  seen  to  pervade  not  only  his  sermons,  but  his 
lectures,  and  even  his  reviews,  wherever  the  subject  ad 
mits  of  any  allusion  to  religion. 

He  says,  speaking  of  the  faculties  of  animals :  "  If 
man,  like  these,  had  only  talents  to  gather  his  support, 
and  defeat  the  hostile  animals  which  surround  him,  no 
hope  of  immortality  could  be  gathered  from  a  condition 
like  this  ;  man  would  be  of  the  earth,  earthy ;  destined 
to  live  in  the  world  with  qualities  fitted  for  this  world, 
and  to  all  appearance  limited  to  it.  But  in  speaking  of 
the  mind  of  man,  we  forget  and  we  pass  over  all  those 
faculties  which  arc  sufficient  for  iho  preservation  of  life. 


56  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

We  do  not  wonder  at  man  because  lie  is  cunning  in  pro 
curing  food,  but  we  arc  amazed  with  the  variety,  the 
superfluity,  the  immensity  of  human  talents.  We  are 
astonished  that  he  should  have  found  his  way  over  the 
seas,  and  numbered  the  stars,  and  called  by  its  name 
every  earth,  and  stone,  and  plant,  and  creeping  reptile 
that  the  Almighty  has  made.  We  see  him  gathered  to 
gether  in  great  cities,  guided  by  laws,  disciplined  by  in 
struction,  softened  by  fine  arts,  and  sanctified  by  solemn, 
worship.  We  count  over  the  pious  spirits  of  the  world, 
the  beautiful  writers,  the  great  statesmen,  all  who  have 
invented  subtlely,  who  have  thought  deeply,  who  have 
executed  wisely — all  these  are  proofs  that  we  are  des 
tined  for  a  second  life ;  and  it  is  not  possible  to  believe 
that  this  redundant  vigor,  this  lavish  and  excessive  pow 
er,  was  given  for  the  mere  gathering  of  meat  and  drink. 
If  the  only  object  is  present  existence,  such  faculties  are 
cruel,  are  misplaced,  are  useless.  They  all  show  us  that 
there  is  something  great  awaiting  us — that  the  soul  is 
now  young  and  infantine,  springing  up  into  a  more  per 
fect  life  when  the  body  falls  into  dust."' 

On  various  occasions  he  dwells  on  the  evidences  of 
the  authenticity  of  the  Christian  religion.  He  says : 
"I  have  selected  this  train  of  reasoning  with  some  care 
from  the  best  writers  in  defense  of  Christianity,  because 
it  is  always  right  that  a  man  should  be  able  to  render 
a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  within  him." 

In  discoursing  on  these  evidences,  he  enforces  them 
with  all  the  powers  with  which  he  was  endowed.  Hav 
ing  shown  the  authenticity  of  the  religion  he  teaches, 
he  proceeds  to  inculcate  in  a  variety  of  forms  the  most 
important  duties  that  religion  enjoined  :  among  these  he 
has  dwelt  on  none  more  frequently  than  "the,  purity 
and  government  of  the  heart"  which,  he  says,  "is 
God's,  and  to  God  it  will  return;"  "it  is  the  ark  of 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  5*7 

God."  "Is  the  passport  to  heaven  written  any  where 
else  than  in  a  pure  heart?"  He  shows  how  in  this 
respect  the  Christian  differs  from  all  spurious  religions, 
not  contenting  itself  with  ceremonies  and  outward  forms, 
but  requiring  thought,  word,  and  deed. 

"  The  beauty  of  the  Christian  religion  is,  that  it 
carries  the  order  and  discipline  of  heaven  into  our 
very  fancies  and  conceptions,  and,  by  hallowing  the 
first  shadowy  notions  of  our  minds  from  which  ac 
tions  spring,  makes  our  actions  themselves  good  and 
holy." 

Toleration,  long-suffering,  and  charity,  he  gathers 
from  every  page  of  the  Gospel.  "The  Church,"  he 
says,  "must  be  distinguished  from  religion  itself;  we 
might  be  Christians  without  any  Established  Church  at 
all,  as  some  countries  of  the  world  are  at  this  day.  A 
church  establishment  is  only  an  instrument  for  teaching 
religion,  but  an  instrument  of  admirable  contrivance 
and  of  vast  utility.  The  Church  of  England  is  the 
wisest  and  most  enlightened  sect  of  Christians  ;  I 
think  so,  or  I  would  not  belong  to  it  another  hour. 
But  is  it  possible  for  me  to  believe  that  every  Christian 
out  of  the  pale  of  that  Church  will  be  consigned  after 
this  life  to  the  never-ending  wrath  of  God  ?  If  I  were 
to  preach  such  doctrines,  who  would  hear  me  ?  Can  I 
paint  God  as  the  protector  of  one  Christian  creed,  dead 
to  all  prayers,  blind  to  all  woes  but  ours  ? — God,  whom 
the  Indian  Christian,  whom  the  Armenian  Christian, 
whom  the  Greek  Christian,  whom  the  Catholic,  whom 
the  Protestant,  adore  in  -a  varied  manner,  in  another 
climate,  with  a  fresh  priest  and  a  changed  creed.  Are 
you  and  I  to  live  again,  and  are  these  Christians  as  well 
as  us  not  to  live  again  ?  Foolish,  arrogant  man  has 
said  this,  but  God  has  never  said  this.  He.  calls  for 
the  just  in  Christ.  He  tells  us  that  through  that  name 


58  MEMOiK  OF  THE  KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

He  will  reward  every  good  man,  and  accept  every  just 
action ;  that  if  you  take  up  the  cross  of  Christ  he  will 
reward  you  for  every  kind  deed,  repay  you  seven-fold 
for  every  example  of  charity,  carefully  note  and  ever 
lastingly  recompense  the  justice,  the  honor,  the  integ 
rity,  the  benevolence  of  your  present  life.  And  yet, 
though  God  is  the  God  of  all  Christians,  each  says  to 
the  other,  He  is  not  your  God,  but  my  God ;  not  the 
God  of  the  just  in  Christ,  but  the  God  of  Calvin,  the 
God  of  Luther,  or  the  God  of  the  Papal  Crown.'' 

"  The  true  Christian,  amidst  all  the  diversities  of 
opinion,  searches  for  the  holy  in  desire,  for  the  good  in 
counsel,  for  the  just  in  works  ;  and  he  loves  the  good, 
under  whatever  temple,  at  whatever  altar  he  may  find 
them." 

"If  I  have  read  icell  iny  Gospel,  it  is  in  such  wise 
we  should  imitate  the  patient  forbearance  of  our  com 
mon  Father,  who  pities  the  frailties  we  do  not  pity, 
who  forgives  the  error  we  do  not  forgive,  who  maketh 
His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  send- 
eth  rain  on  the  just  and  the  unjust." 

He  insists  strongly  on  the  vital  importance  of  the 
religious  education  of  youth:  "When  you  see  a  child 
brought  up  in  the  way  he  should  go,  you  see  a  good 
of  which  you  can  not  measure  the  quantity,  nor  per 
ceive  the  end ;  it  may  be  communicated  to  the  chil 
dren's  children  of  that  child.  It  may  last  for  centu 
ries  ;  it  may  be  communicated  to  innumerable  indi 
viduals.  It  may  be  planting  a  plant,  and  sowing  a 
seed,  which  may  fill  the  land  with  the  glorious  increase 
of  righteousness,  and  bring  upon  us  the  blessings  of  the 
Almighty." 

He  then  points  out  the  true  pleasures,  the  use  and 
the  abuse  of  youth ;  the  preparations  for  age ;  the 
warnings  sent  bv  a  merciful  God :  the  utility  of  medi- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  59 

tation  on  death ;  the  wortlilessness  of  this  world  but 
as  a  stepping-stone  to  a  better.  And  thus,  while  rais 
ing  the  mind  from  earth  to  heaven,  and  urging,  as  he 
says,  "nothing  foolish,  nothing  romantic,  nothing  bor 
dering  on  ridicule  or  enthusiasm,"  he  inculcates  a  recol 
lection  that  there  arc  really  and  truly  things  above  this 
world,  and  coming  after  this  world,  and  better  than  this 
world.  He  exhorts  us  to  live  as  others  live,  and  do  as 
others  do,  but  at  the  same  time  to  live  to  higher  pur 
poses  than  others  live,  and  do  greater  and  better  actions 
than  others  do.  He  then  enters  into  the  detail  of  those 
virtues,  and  the  attack  of  those  vices,  which  the  wis 
dom  of  God  has  either  commanded  or  forbidden  for  the 
happiness  of  man. 

This,  I  believe,  will  be  found  to  be  an  accurate 
analysis  of  the  use  he  made  of  his  ministry.  Few 
extracts  have  been  made,  from  the  difficulty  of  selec 
tion  ;  but  I  may  venture  to  say  that  those  who  will 
seek,  and  select  for  themselves,  will  not  be  unre 
warded. 

As,  however,  my  opinion  can  hardly  be  considered 
an  impartial  one,  I  may  be  allowed  to  quote  two  or 
three  extracts  from  publications,  after  his  death,  in  con 
firmation  of  it.  "In  a  literary  point  of  view,"  says 
one  writer,  "  these  sermons  stand  alone  among  modern 
pulpit  discourses  ;  they  have  not  the  theological  learn 
ing  which  distinguishes  some,  or  the  mystical  eloquence 
that  gives  character  to  the  outpourings  of  the  present 
Bishop  of  Oxford ;  but  how  full  of  freshness  and  life 
they  arc  1  There  is  nothing  of  compilation  or  imitation 
in  them  ;  the  writer  has  not  consulted  other  divines  for 
topics  and  ideas,  but,  selecting  his  text,  he  has  treat 
ed  it  from  the  stores  of  his  own  mind,  exhibiting  his 
own  view  on  questions  of  doctrine,  and  illustrating  mat 
ters  of  practice  from  his  own  observation  and  experience 


GO  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

of  mankind,  and  it  bears  the  strong  impress  which  vig 
orous  life  always  imparts/' 

Another  says:  "Christianity  was  not  a  dogma  with 
Sydney  Smith,  it  was  a  practical  and  most  beneficent 
creed ;  it  was  the  rule  of  action  to  his  life.  The  vol 
ume  contains  not  a  thought  or  opinion  at  war  with  Chris 
tian  charity." 

And  again,  one  says:  "But  how  beautiful  were  the 
serious  moods  of  Sydney  Smith!  What  a  fine  fullness 
and  solidity  they  had;  drawn  from  the  strength  and 
justice  which  we  believe  to  have  been  the  ruling  sense 
of  his  mind,  and  tempered  with  the  warmth  of  charac 
ter,  of  which  no  man  had  a  larger  share.  What  a  pic 
ture  is  that  in  one  of  his  sermons  where  he  describes 
the  village  school,  and  the  tattered  scholars,  and  the 
aged,  poverty-stricken  master,  teaching  the  mechanical 
art  of  reading  or  writing,  and  thinking  he  was  teaching 
that  alone,  while  in  truth  he  was  protecting  life,  insur 
ing  property,  fencing  the  altar,  guarding  the  throne, 
giving  space  and  liberty  to  all  the  tine  powers  of  man, 
and  lifting  him  up  to  his  own  place  in  the  order  of  crea 
tion  !" 

I  shall  content  myself  witli  but  one  more  extract, 
from  his  Charity  Sermon  in  behalf  of  the  Blind,  as  it 
was  the  one  which  elicited  the  splendid  eulogium  from 
Mr.  Dugald  Stewart,  to  which  I  have  alluded  elsewhere. 

"  The  author  of  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes  has  told  us 
'that  the  light  is  sweet,  that  it  is  a  pleasant  thing  for 
the  eyes  to  behold  the  sun.'  The  sense  of  sight  is  in 
deed  the  highest  bodily  privilege,  the  purest  physical 
pleasure,  which  man  has  derived  from  his  Creator.  To 
see  that  wandering  fire,  after  he  has  finished  his  jour 
ney  through  the  nations,  coming  back  to  his  eastern 
heavens,  the  mountains  painted  with  light,  the  floating 
splendor  of  the  sea,  the  cartli  waking  from  deep  slum- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  61 

Tbcr,  the  day  flowing  clown  the  sides  of  the  hills  till  it 
reaches  the  secret  valleys,  the  little  insect  recalled  to 
life,  the  bird  trying  her  wings,  man  going  forth  to  his 
labor — each  created  being  moving,  thinking,  acting, 
contriving,  according  to  the  scheme  and  compass  of  its 
nature,  by  force,  by  cunning,  by  reason,  by  necessity. 
Is  it  possible  to  joy  in  this  animated  scene,  and  feel  no 
pity  for  the  sons  of  darkness  ?  for  the  eyes  that  will 
never  see  light?  for  the  poor  clouded  in  everlasting 
gloom  ?  If  you  ask  me  why  they  are  miserable  and 
dejected,  I  turn  you  to  the  plentiful  valleys  ;  to  the 
iields  now  bringing  forth  their  increase ;  to  the  fresh 
ness  and  the  flowers  of  the  earth ;  to  the  endless  variety 
of  its  colors ;  to  the  grace,  the  symmetry,  the  shape  of 
all  it  cherishes  and  all  it  bears :  these  you  have  forgot 
ten,  because  you  have  always  enjoyed  them ;  but  these 
are  the  means  by  which  God  Almighty  makes  man 
what  he  is — cheerful,  lively,  erect,  full  of  enterprise, 
mutable,  glancing  from  heaven  to  earth,  prone  to  labor 
and  to  act.  Why  was  not  the  earth  left  without  form 
and  void  ?  Why  was  not  darkness  suffered  to  remain 
on  the  face  of  the  deep  ?  Why  did  God  place  lights  in 
the  firmament,  for  days,  for  seasons,  for  signs,  and  for 
years?  That  He  might  make  man  the  happiest  of 
created  beings  ;  that  He  might  give  to  this  his  favorite 
creation  a  wider  scope,  a  more  permanent  duration,  a 
richer  diversity  of  joy.  This  is  the  reason  why  the 
blind  are  miserable  and  dejected — because  their  soul  is 
mutilated,  and  dismembered  of  its  best  sense — because 
they  are  a  laughter  and  a  ruin,  and  the  boys  of  the 
streets  mock  at  their  stumbling  feet. 

"  Therefore  I  implore  you,  by  the  Son  of  David,  have 
mercy  on  the  blind.  If  there  is  not  pity  for  all  sor 
rows,  turn  the  full  and  perfect  man  to  meet  the  inclem 
ency  of  fate;  let  not  those  who  have  never  tasted  the 


62  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

pleasures  of  existence  be  assailed  by  any  of  its  sorrows  ; 
the  eyes  which  are  never  gladdened  by  light  should 
never  stream  with  tears. 

"  How  merciful  our  blessed  Saviour  was  wont  to 
show  himself  to  their  afflictions!  Blind  Bartimeus  sat 
by  the  wayside  begging ;  and  as  the  crowd  passed  by, 
he  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  '  Thou  Son  of  David,  have 
mercy  upon  me!'  Jesus  stopped  the  multitude,  and 
before  them  all  restored  to  him  his  sight.  The  first 
thing  that  he  saw,  who  never  saw  before,  was  the  Son 
of  his  God !  These  blind  people,  like  Bartimeus,  will 
never  see,  till  they  behold  their  Redeemer  on  the  last 
day :  not  as  He  then  was,  in  his  earthly  shape,  but 
girded  by  all  the  host  of  heaven — the  Judge  of  nations, 
the  everlasting  Counselor,  the  Prince  of  Peace.  At 
that  hour  this  heaven  and  earth  will  pass  away,  and  all 
things  melt  with  fervent  heat :  but  in  the  wreck  of 
worlds  no  tittle  of  mercy  shall  perish,  and  the  deeds  of 
the  just  shall  be  recorded  in  the  mind  of  God." 

In  giving  this  little  sketch  of  his  writings,  I  have 
somewhat  anticipated  in  my  narrative,  and  must  return 
to  my  father's  residence  in  Edinburgh.  Mr.  Beach  had 
requested  him  to  receive  his  second  son  under  his  charge, 
and  at  the  same  time  Mr.  Gordon,  of  Ellon  Castle,  was 
intrusted  to  his  care  by  his  guardians. 

For  the  care  of  each  of  these  young  men,  he  received 
/  £400,  the  highest  sum  which  had  been  then  given  to 
any  one  but  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart.  He  fully  justified 
the  trust  reposed  in  him ;  he  liA^ed  with  them  as  a  fa 
ther  and  a  friend :  they  are  both  still  alive,  and  both,  I 
believe,  retain  warm  feelings  of  love  and  respect  for  the 
memory  of  their  former  Mentor ;  indeed,  one  of  them 
always  evinced  a  truly  filial  affection  toward  him. 

On  one  occasion  he  was  much  amused  by  the  com- 


MEMOIR   OE  THE   REV.  SYDNEY    SMITH.  03 

plaints  made  by  liis  young  friends  of  the  difficulty  of 
finding  conversation  for  their  partners  in  the  two  balls  a 
week  which  he  allowed  them  during  the  season.  "Oh," 
said  he,  "I'll  lit  you  up  in  five  minutes :  I'll  write  you 
some  conversations,  and  you  will  be  considered  the  two 
most  agreeable  young  men  in  Edinburgh."  Pen  arid 
ink  were  brought,  the  conversations — numbers  one,  two, 
and  three — written  down  amidst  fits  of  laughter ;  each 
youth  chose  his  conversation ;  and  it  would  be  difficult 
to  say  who  was  the  most  amused,  the  writer,  the 
speaker,  or  the  hearer,  by  this  novel  expedient. 

During  his  residence  in  Edinburgh,  though  without 
any  clerical  duties  of  his  own,  my  father  not  unfrequent- 
ly  preached  in  the  Episcopal  church,  then  served  by 
Bishop  Sanford ;  and  I  believe  the  earliest  of  the  charity 
sermons  he  has  preached  (of  which  there  arc  several 
very  touching  ones  among  those  which  have  been  pub 
lished)  was  for  the  Lying-in  Hospital.  The  singular 
custom  which  was  then  always  observed,  of  delivering 
these  sermons  at  night,  seems  to  have  given  occasion  to 
a  striking  passage  in  it. 

A  few  months  after  the  birth  of  his  daughter,  he  went 
in  the  summer  for  a  short  time  to  Burnt  Island,  a  small 
sea-bathing  place  at  no  great  distance  from  Edinburgh, 
for  the  recovery  of  my  mother's  health  ;  and  here,  but 
for  his  courage  and  firmness,  he  would  have  lost  his 
long-wished-for  daughter,  in  a  way  he  had  not  at  all 
anticipated.  When  only  six  months  old  she  fell  ill  of 
the  croup,  with  such  fearful  violence,  that  it  defied  all 
the  remedies  employed  by  the  best  medical  man  there. 
The  danger  increased  with  every  hour.  Dr.  Hamilton, 
then  one  of  the  most  eminent  medical  men  in  Edin 
burgh,  was  sent  for,  could  not  come,  but  said,  "Per 
severe  in  giving  two  grains  of  calomel  every  hour ;  I 
never  knew  it  fail."  It  was  given  for  eleven  hours  ;  the 


64  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

child  grew  worse  and  worse ;  the  medical  man  in  at 
tendance  then  said,  "  I  dare  give  no  more ;  I  can  do  no 
more,  the  child  must  die,  but  at  this  age  I  would  not 
venture  to  give  more  to  my  own  child."  "You,"'  said 
my  father,  "  can  do  no  more ;  Hamilton  says,  Perse 
vere  ;  I  will  take  the  responsibility,  I  will  give  it  to  her 
myself."  He  gave  it,  and  the  child  was  saved. 

Another  instance  of  his  moral  courage  and  presence 
of  mind  occurred  in  after-life,  when,  accidentally  in  the 
house  of  a  near  relation  soon  after  her  confinement,  who 
was  suddenly  seized  by  a  most  alarming  attack,  her 
husband  from  home,  a  very  eminent  medical  man  who 
attended  her  absent ;  all  the  others  sent  to  in  this  mo 
ment  of  distress,  out  also.  At  last,  a  young  medical 
man  was  brought,  who  declared  the  danger  to  be  immi 
nent  ;  that  if  the  patient  were  a  pauper,  he  would  bleed 
her  instantly,  and  probably  save  her  life :  he  feared, 
however,  to  interfere  in  a  case  attended  by  so  eminent 
a  man,  as,  if  he  failed,  he  should  be  ruined.  My  fa 
ther's  medical  knowledge  confirming  this  opinion,  he 
determined  to  take  the  whole  responsibility  on  himself, 
and  insisted  upon  its  being  done  before  he  left  the 
house.  Eelief  was  immediate,  and,  by  the  time  the 
husband  returned,  the  patient  was  safe. 

At  the  end  of  the  autumn  he  returned  again  to  Edin 
burgh  for  the  winter,  and  his  time  there  was  divided 
between  his  pupils,  the  Edinburgh  Review  (to  which  he 
was  at  that  period  not  only  contributor  but  editor),  the 
enjoyment  of  the  choicest  society  that  was  to  be  found 
any  where  out  of  London,  and  the  study  of  medicine, 
anatomy,  and  moral  philosophy.  He  was  a  constant 
attendant  on  the  beautiful  lectures  of  Mr.  Dugald  Stew 
art,  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  with  whom  he 
lived  in  habits  of  almost  daily  communication ;  as  also 
with  that  remarkable  man,  Dr.  Thomas  Brown,  who 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  Go 

succeeded  Mr.  Stewart  in  the  Professor's  chair  of  Moral 
Philosophy,  from  whom  he  imbibed  a  keen  love  of  the 
subjects  connected  with  that  science.  Medicine  and 
anatomy  had  always  been  favorite  pursuits  of  my  fa 
ther's  even  when  at  Oxford,  where  he  bestowed  so  much 
attention  on  the  study  of  the  former  under  Sir  Christo 
pher  Pegge,  that  the  Professor  much  wished  him  to  be 
come  a  physician.  Feeling  now  that  such  knowledge 
might  be  of  the  greatest  use  in  his  future  destination, 
the  Church,  he  pursued  it  with  the  more  ardor,  and 
attended  the  Clinical  Lectures  in  the  hospitals  in  Edin 
burgh,  given  by  Dr.  Gregory. 

He  thus  obtained  a  degree  of  knowledge  that  enabled 
him  afterward  to  be  of  the  greatest  service  to  the  poor 
of  his  parish,  who  entirely  depended  on  him  for  assist 
ance,  and  to  become  the  favorite  doctor  of  his  own 
family,  who  rarely  summoned  any  other  medical  man 
to  their  aid :  and  I  have  the  authority  of  my  husband, 
Sir  Henry  Holland  (who  had  frequent  opportunities  of 
observing  his  practice,  and  ascertaining  his  knowledge 
of  medicine),  for  saying,  that  both  his  judgment  and 
knowledge  were  very  remarkable,  and  used  with  the 
same  prudence  and  good  sense  which  he  exercised  on 
all  other  subjects. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Quits  Edinburgh  for  London. — Settles  in  Doughty  Street. — Makes  Legal 
and   other  Friends. — Obtains  Preachership  of  Foundling  Hospital. 

— Refusal  of  Dr. to  enable  him  to  lease  a  Chapel. — Sermon  to 

Volunteers. — Friendship  with  Lord  Holland. — Introduction  to  Hol 
land  House. — Holland  House,  and  Society  there. — Obtains  Preacher- 
ship  of  St.  John's  Chapel,  Bedford  Square. — Gives  Lectures  at  Royal 
Institution. — Descriptions  of  their  Effect. — Poverty. — Society  at  his 
House,  and  Suppers. — Anecdote  of  Sir  J.  Mackintosh  and  Cousin. — 
Elected  to  the  Johnson  Literary  Club. — The  King  reads  his  Review, 
and  says  he  will  never  be  a  Bishop. — Preaches  on  Toleration  at  the 
Temple  Church. — Increase  of  Reputation  and  Friends.  —  Natural 
Spirits,  their  Effects. — Some  Anecdotes. 

IN  1803,  the  education  of  Mr.  Sydney  Smith's  pupils 
being  finished,  and  his  income  in  consequence  much  re 
duced,  it  became  necessary  for  him  to  resolve  upon 
some  course  of  life  which  might  secure  to  him  a  perma 
nent  independence. 

He  was  most  reluctant  to  quit  Edinburgh,  where  he 
had  many  valuable  friends  and  was  much  sought  after ; 
and  where  his  name  would  have  probably  continued  to 
procure  him  pupils. 

My  mother  however  was  more  ambitious  for  him  than 
he  was  for  himself;  and  feeling  that  he  was  meant  for 
better  and  higher  things,  and  that  his  talents  were  worthy 
of  a  more  extensive  sphere,  she  used  all  her  influence 
to  induce  him  to  seek  it  where  alone  it  was  to  be  found. 
After  much  deliberation  he  determined  to  yield  to  lier 
wishes,  plunge  at  once  into  London,  and  endeavor  to 
make  known,  where  they  were  most  likely  to  be  appre 
ciated,  such  talents  as  he  possessed.  He  therefore 
broke  up  his  camp  in  Edinburgh,  much  to  his  own  and 


MEMOIR   01'  THE   KEV.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  07 

his  friends'  regret,  and  established  himself  in  London  in 
the  year  1804. 

On  his  first  arrival  there,  he  took  a  small  house  in 
Doughty  Street,  Russell  Square,  attracted  thither  "by 
the  legal  society  which  then  resided  in  that  part  of 
London,  and  of  which  he  was  always  very  fond. 

This  resolution  to  settle  in  London  turned  out  the 
wisest  he  could  have  taken ;  yet,  friendless  as  my  fa 
ther  then  was,  and  obnoxious  to  Government  as  he  had 
become  by  his  principles  and  writings,  and  without  any 
obvious  means  of  increasing  his  income,  it  was  not  car 
ried  through  without  considerable  anxiety  and  a  severe 
and  courageous  struggle  with  poverty;  and,  to  add  to 
his  difficulties  and  anxieties,  soon  after  his  arrival  in 
town  his  family  was  increased  by  the  birth  of  his  eldest 
son,  Douglas. 

My  grandmother,  Mrs.  Pybus,  whose  death  had  taken 
place  shortly  before  my  father  quitted  Edinburgh,  had 
left  my  mother  her  own  and  her  eldest  daughter's  (Lady 
Fletcher's)  jewels,  which  were  of  some  value.  My  moth 
er,  feeling  that  such  ornaments  were  most  unbecoming 
in  her  present  position,  insisted  upon  their  being  sold 
as  soon  as  they  came  to  London,  and  she  describes  my 
father's  "comical  anxiety  lest  mankind  should  recover 
from  their  illusion,  and  cease  to  value  such  glittering 
baubles  before  they  could  be  sold."  The  negotiation 
begun  with  the  jeweler,  Sydney  was  not  easy  till  it 
was  accomplished ;  and  even  then,  she  says,  she  does 
not  think  he  was  quite  easy  in  his  mind  at  having  helped 
to  continue  the  illusion  by  accepting  so  large  a  price  for 
them. 

Of  the  early  part  of  his  career  in  London,  I,  of  course, 
know  nothing,  and  recollect  hearing  but  little.  He  early 
formed  the  acquaintance,  and  obtained  the  friendship  of 
several  eminent  lawyers  then  living  in  that  neighbor- 


68  MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

hood.  The  most  distinguished  of  these  were  Sir  S. 
Romilly,  Mr.  Scarlett  (afterward  Lord  Abinger),  and 
Sir  J.  Mackintosh.  To  these  may  be  added  Dr.  Mar- 
cet,  M.  Dumont,  Mr.  Whishaw,  Lord  Dudley  (then  Mr. 
Ward),  Mr.  Sharpe,  Mr.  Rogers,  Mr.  Luttrell,  and  Mr. 
Tenant — who,  under  the  most  uncouth  appearance,  com 
bined  such  simplicity,  warmth  of  heart,  and  varied 
knowledge,  as  made  him  a  general  favorite  in  the  little 
circle,  and  the  mysteries  of  whose  menage,  often  afforded 
amusement  to  his  friends.  He  lived  in  a  small  lodging, 
and  his  establishment  consisted  solely  of  an  old  black 
servant,  who  tyrannized  over  him  in  no  small  degree, 
called  Dominique.  He  was  overheard  one  morning  call 
ing  from  his  bed,  "Dominique!  Dominique!"  but  no 
Dominique  appeared.  "Why  don't  you  bring  me  my 
stockings,  Dominique?"  "Can't  come,  massa."  "Why 
can't  you  come,  Dominique?"  "Can't  come,  massa,  I 
am  dronke."  Mr.  Tenant,  who  probably  thought  it  a 
law  of  nature  that  Dominique  should  be  drunk,  for  he 
was  seldom  otherwise,  submitted  with  the  greatest 
meekness. 

My  father  also  became  acquainted  with  some  of  the 
French  emigrants,  of  whom  there  were  many  at  this 
time  resident  in  London  and  its  neighborhood ;  among 
these,  some,  from  their  cultivation  and  the  refinement  of 
their  manners,  became  very  agreeable  additions  to  his 
society.  Of  these,  I  remember  a  M.  Dutens,*  and  a 
charming  old  Abbe,  who  became  quite  one  of  the  family. 
I  can  recall  his  pale,  mild  face,  his  thin  figure,  smart 
shoe-buckles,  cane,  and  snuff-box,  though  I  forget  his 
name.  He  was  bent  on  inventing  a  universal  language  j 
and  used,  in  his  simplicity,  constantly  to  come  and  con 
sult  my  father,  who,  much  amused,  suggested  a  few 
grammatical  difficulties  from  time  to  time.  The  poor 
*  Author  of  "Memoires  d'un  Voyageur  qni  se  repose." 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  G'J 

old  Abbe,  out  of  all  patience,  at  last  exclaimed,  "  Oil 
non,  monsieur,  ce  sont  la  des  bagatelles  1  La  seule 
difficulte  que  je  trouve  c'est  de  faire  agir  tons  les  rois 
d'Europe  au  memc  instant."  My  father  admitted  that 
this  was  a  slight  difficulty ;  but  we  left  London,  or  the 
old  Abbe  left  England,  before  he  had  solved  it. 

In  the  summer  of  1804  the  alarm  occasioned  by  the 
idea  of  French  invasion  was  rapidly  increasing,  and 
volunteers  were  pouring  in  from  all  ranks  and  classes. 
One  of  the  earliest  sermons  my  father  seems  to  have 
been  called  upon  to  preach  was  on  this  subject,  before 
a  large  body  of  volunteers  collected  in  the  Metropolis ; 
he  closes  it  by  saying,  "  I  have  a  boundless  confidence 
in  the  English  character  ;  I  believe  that  they  have  more 
real  religion,  more  probity,  more  knowledge,  and  more 
genuine  worth,  than  exists  in  the  whole  world  besides ; 
they  are  the  guardians  of  pure  Christianity,  and  from 
this  prostituted  nation  of  merchants  (as  they  are  in  de 
rision  called)  I  believe  more  heroes  will  spring  up  in  the 
hour  of  danger  than  all  the  military  nations  of  ancient 
and  modern  Europe  have  ever  produced.  Into  the  hands 
of  God,  then,  and  his  ever-merciful  Son,  we  cast  our 
selves,  and  wait  in  humble  patience  the  result.  First 
we  ask  for  victory;  but  if  that  can  not  be,  we  have  only 
one  other  prayer — we  implore  for  death." 

A  year  or  two  after,  he  preached  another  sermon  for 
the  suffering  Swiss. 

About  this  time  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Sir 
Thomas  Barnard,  who  was  so  much  struck  with  his 
sense  and  originality  that  he  recommended  him  to  the 
preachcrship  of  the  Foundling  Hospital,  at  £50  per  an 
num,  which  employment,  small  as  was  the  remunera 
tion,  was  gladly  accepted.  Slight  as  this  service  was, 
and  probably  suggested  more  for  the  benefit  of  the  Hos 
pital  than  for  that  of  my  father,  I  must  still  feel  grate- 


70  MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

ful  to  one  who  thus  held  out  a  helping  hand  to  a  clever 
and  friendless  young  man  struggling  with  the  difficulties 
of  the  world,  and  eager  to  perform  the  duties  of  his  pro 
fession  ;  a  kindness  which  was  the  more  felt  from  the 
contrast  it  afforded  to  the  impediments  most  unexpect 
edly  thrown  in  his  way  about  the  same  time  by  others. 
A  chapel,  then  occupied  by  a  sect  of  Dissenters  call 
ing  themselves  the  Xew  Jerusalem,  and  belonging  to 

Mr.  D ,  was  most  kindly  offered  by  him  on  lease 

to  my  father,  if  he  could  obtain  the  necessary  license 
from  the  rector  of  the  parish.  His  earnest  and  touch 
ing  appeal  to  one  he  believed  to  be  his  friend,  to  grant 
this,  and  thus  enable  him  to  support  his  family  and 
benefit  the  parish  by  his  exertions  in  his  profession, 
Avill  be  seen  in  the  following  letters  ;  and  with  what 
result,  and  for  what  reasons  rejected.  I  mention  no 
names,  as  I  wish  to  excite  no  angry  feelings,  and  both 
men  are  now  gone  to  a  higher  tribunal ;  but  I  can  not 
refrain  from  stating  one  of  the  many  difficulties  my 
father  had  to  contend  with. 

To  Dr. . 

"DEAR  SlR,  "Loxnox. 

"  I  am  about  to  address  myself  to  you  upon  a  sub 
ject  which  very  materially  concerns  my  happiness  and 
interest,  and  on  which  therefore  I  am  sure  you  will 
consider,  with  as  much  disposition  to  befriend  a  brother 
clergyman  as  you  can  entertain  consistently  with  your 
duty.  Messrs.  -  -  and  Co.  have  agreed  to  let  me  a 
lease  of  the  chapel  in  —  -  Street :  will  you,  under  any 
restrictions,  andiron  any  conditions,  allow  me  to  preach 
there  f 

4 'In  the  first  place,  I  can  not  doubt  that  where  a 
place  of  worship  is  to  exist  in  your  parish,  you  would 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  71 

rather  that  the  worship  of  the  Church  of  England  were 
carried  on  there,  than  that  it  should  belong  to  such 
sectaries  as  the  Christians  of  the  ISFew  Jerusalem  (as 
they  entitle  themselves).  I  should  have  greater  reluct 
ance  in  making  this  request  if  the  places  of  worship  in 
your  parish  were  thinly  attended,  or  if  they  were  more 
than  sufficient  for  the  population  of  the  parish ;  but,  on 
the  contrary,  numbers  are  sent  away  every  Sunday  from 
your  church  for  want  of  room.  Many  families  have  in 
vain  waited  for  years  to  obtain  seats  there ;  and  the  other 
chapels-of-ease  I  understand  to  be  quite  filled,  though 
they  can  not  be  said  to  be  so  overflowing.  This  chapel 
does  not  hold  above  three  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  ex 
clusive  of  servants;  the  mere  overflowings  of  your  church 
would  fill  it. 

"  It  is,  I  admit,  of  great  importance  for  you  to  con 
sider  whether  I  am,  or  arn  not,  such  a  person  as  you 
would  wish  to  perform  the  duties  of  a  minister  in  your 
parish.  This  you  can  easily  enough  ascertain.  I  have 
officiated  nearly  two  years  in  Berkeley  Chapel,  where 
the  Primate  of  Ireland,  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield,  and 
Dr.  Dutens  have  seats :  of  the  two  former  gentlemen  I 
know  nothing ;  with  Dr.  Dutens  I  am  w^ell  acquainted. 
If  these  three  dignified  and  respectable  clergymen  have 
any  objection  to  make  to  my  doctrines,  I  do  not  wish 
that  the  request  I  make  to  you  should  be  successful, 
and  I  am  the  first  to  withdraw  it.  But  if  they  say  of 
me  that  my  preaching  commands  attention,  that  I  have 
any  talent  for  enforcing  moral  and  religious  truth,  and 
that  I  may  be  beneficially  intrusted  with  such  an  office 
in  any  situation — such  testimony,  I  am  sure,  will  have 
its  due  weight  with  you,  and  if  you  can  let  me  preach, 
you  will.  It  has  often  been  said  of  the  proprietors  of 
chapels,  that  they  are  rather  apt  to  tell  such  truths  as 
are  pleasant,  than  such  as  are  useful.  I  appeal  to  the 


72  MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

same  gentlemen,  whether  the  fear  of  offending  any  one, 
let  his  rank  and  situation  be  what  it  may,  has  ever  pre 
vented  me  from  enforcing  duties  on  which  I  thought  my 
self  bound  to  animadvert ;  and  you  will  excuse  me  if  I 
say  that  you  yourself,  who  have  nothing  to  gain  by  pleas 
ing  or  to  lose  by  offending,  have  not  attacked  the  vices 
of  the  rich  and  the  great  with  more  honest  freedom  than 
I  have  done,  though  your  superior  years,  station,  and 
understanding  have  of  course  enabled  you  to  do  it  with 
much  greater  effect. 

"My  pretensions,  however,  of  this  nature  must  of 
course  be  judged  by  others.  But  of  my  situation  in 
life  (as  I  am  the  only  judge  of  it)  I  hope  you  will  al 
low  me  to  say  a  few  words.  I  am  a  married  man, 
with  two  children,  and  as  I  am  young  my  family  may 
increase ;  I  have  a  very  small  fortune,  no  preferment, 
nor  any  friends  who  are  likely  to  give  me  any.  The 
chapel  where  I  preach  at  present  will,  I  fancy,  soon  be 
sold ;  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  clergyman  who 
can  afford  to  purchase  it  may  choose  to  preach  him 
self.  It  is  not  for  want  of  exertion  my  situation  in  the 
Church  is  not  better,  for  I  have  not  been  idle  in  the 
narrow  and  obscure  field  which  is  open  to  the  inferior 
clergy.  I  hope  you  will  have  the  kindness  to  consider 
these  circumstances,  before  you  refuse  me  the  opportu 
nity  of  supporting  my  family  and  bettering  my  situation 
by  my  own  exertions. 

"A  few  years  ago,  my  dear  Sir,  when  your  situation 
was  what  mine  is,  such  considerations  would  have 
touched  you,  and  you  would  have  acknowledged  their 
force.  You  know  well  the  difficulties  and  the  mise 
ries  of  a  curate's  life ;  and  I  am  sure  you  are  the  last 
man  in  the  world  to  forget  them,  merely  because  you 
have  overcome  them  with  so  much  honor  and  distinc 
tion.  I  am  aware  it  will  be  necessary  to  apply  to  the 


MEMOIR    OF  THE   KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  73 

patron  of  the  living  if  your  answer  should  be  favorable 
to  me,  but  I  fancy  it  is  regular  to  make  the  first  appli 
cation  to  you ;  and  I  rather  write  than  call  upon  you, 
because  I  think  it  unfair,  on  such  subjects,  to  take  gen 
tlemen  by  surprise,  where  sufficient  leisure  ought  to  be 
given  for  deliberation.  In  a  week's  time  I  will  call 
upon  you  for  an  answer :  if  you  grant  my  request,  I 
shall  feel  very  grateful  to  you.  I  shall  receive  your 
answer  with  great  anxiety,  and  am, 

"My  dear  Sir,  with  great  respect, 

"Your  obedient  servant, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH.'' 

From  the  11 'ev.  Sydney  Smith  to  Dr.  -    — . 

"DEAR  SlR, 

"If  I  do  not  hear  from  you  to  the  contrary,  I  will 
call  upon  you  after  morning  service  on  Sunday.  I 
forgot  to  mention  in  my  letter  to  you,  that  Mr.  Bar 
nard*  gave  me  leave  to  make  any  use  I  please  of  his 
name  in  the  way  of  reference.  I  beg  you  to  recollect 
that  the  question  before  you  for  your  decision,  is  a  choice 
between  fanaticism  and  the  worship  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  your  parish ;  one  or  the  other  must  exist. 
If  I  doubted  of  any  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of 
England,  if  I  were  possessed  of  any  foolish  and  absurd 
tenets  of  my  own,  I  should  be  immediately  qualified  by 
law  to  open  the  chapel :  I  hope  you  will  not  disqualify 
me  merely  because  I  am  a  firm  and  zealous  advocate  in 
the  same  cause  with  yourself,  for  this  would  be  to  give 
a  bounty  on  dissent  and  heresy.  It  would  be  a  very 
different  question  if  I  asked  you  to  let  me  open  a  new 
place  of  worship ;  but  I  merely  ask  you  to  change  that 
worship  from  the  present  method,  which  you  completely 
*  Afterward  Sir  T.  Barnard. 

VOL.  L— 1) 


74  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY  SMITH. 

disapprove,  to  that  which  you.  completely  approve  and 
eminently  practice. 

"Excuse  the  trouble  I  give  you;  but  when  a  poor 
clergyman  sees  an  honest  and  respectable  method  of  im 
proving  his  situation  in  life,  you  can  not  wonder  at  his 
anxiety.  You  will  make  me  a  very  happy  man,  if  you 
consent  to  my  request. 

"With  great  respect,  etc.  etc., 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH/' 

Dr.  -  — 's  first  answer  is  not  given,  as  Mr.  Smith's 
next  letter  states  its  contents. 

From  the  Hev.  Sydney  Smith  to  Dr.  -    — . 

"DEAR    SlR, 

"  The  principal  objection  which  your  letter  contained 
against  the  permission  I  requested,  is  the  reluctance  you 
state  yourself  to  feel  to  imposing  an  obligation  on  your 
successors.  Would  you  then  object  to  give  me  leave  to 
preach  during  your  life,  leaving  it  entirely  open,  by  such 
limited  concession,  to  those  who  succeed  you,  to  con 
tinue  or  suspend  the  permission  ?  Let  me  place  myself 
entirely  out  of  the  question,  and  put  the  argument  to 
you :  If  any  new  person  whom  you  may  allow  to  preach 
in  your  parish,  is  a  man  very  little  calculated  for  such 
an  office,  it  is  not  probable  that  people  will  quit  the  Es 
tablished  places  of  worship  to  resort  to  him ;  if  he  is,  it 
is  probable  he  will  draw  many  to  church,  who  would 
not  otherwise  go,  and  that  the  mass  of  people  who  at 
tend  public  worship  in  that  parish  will  be  materially  in 
creased  ;  which,  I  presume,  is  a  consequence  that  every 
parish  minister  sincerely  wishes  for,  and  would  make 
some  effort  to  obtain.  I  beg  you  to  reflect,  as  I  said  in 
my  last  note  (which  crossed  your  letter),  that  I  am  not 


MEMOIii   OF  THE    KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  76 

asking  you  to  let  me  open  a  place  of  worship  in  your 
parish — it  is  already  open — but  I  ask  you  to  let  me 
change  the  absurd  and  disgraceful  devotion  which  is  go 
ing  on  there  at  present  (and  will  go  on  there  still),  for 
the  devotion  of  the  Church  of  England.  I  ask  you  to 
give  me  the  preference  over  a  low  and  contemptible  fa 
natic  ;  and  will  you  allow  me,  without  the  slightest  in 
tention  of  offending  you,  to  lay  before  you  the  seeming 
inconsistency  of  your  answer  ? 

"You  say,  'I  allow  you  have  considerable  talents  for 
preaching,  I  know  you  have  been  well  educated,  I  am 
sure  you  will  be  of  great  use,  but  I  give  a  decided  pref 
erence  over  you  to  a  very  foolish  and  a  very  ignorant 
Methodist,  whose  extravagance  is  debauching  the  minds 
of  the  lower  class  of  my  parishioners,  and  whom  I  should 
be  heartily  glad  to  see  driven  out  of  my  parish.'  Excuse 
my  freedom,  but  such  are  inevitably  to  be  the  conse 
quences  deduced  from  your  answer. 

"  I  appeal  to  you  again,  whether  any  thing  can  be  so 
enormous  and  unjust,  as  that  that  privilege  should  be 
denied  to  the  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England  which 
every  man  who  has  folly  and  presumption  enough  to 
differ  from  it  can  immediately  enjoy  ?  I  hope  you  will 
give  these  observations  some  consideration,  and,  as  soon 
as  you  have,  return  me  your  answer  upon  them. 

"You  observe  that  what  I  ask  is  unnecessary,  and 
that  it  is  an  innovation ;  but  I  sincerely  hope  you  would 
not  refuse  me  so  great  an  advantage,  unless  it  was  per 
nicious  as  well  as  unnecessary ;  and  that  if  the  plan  I 
suggest  is  an  improvement,  you  will  not  reject  it  merely 
because  it  is  an  innovation. 

"  I  thank  you  very  kindly  for  all  the  good  you  say 
of  me :  I  will  endeavor  to  deserve  it. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  truly  yours, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 


76  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

From  Dr.  to  the  Itev.  Sydney  Smith. 

"DEAR    SlR, 

"I  was  in  hopes  I  had  so  expressed  myself  in  my 
letter  of  Wednesday,  that  you  would  have  immediately 
seen  my  unwillingness  to  admit  the  arrangement  you 
propose  respecting  this  chapel;  although  at  the  same 
time  I  am  sorry  to  be  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  your 
interest,  I  can  only  add,  that  the  expediency  of  the 
measure  having  been  considered  by  my  predecessors,  I 
mean  to  abide  by  their  decision.  I  hope  never  to  be  of 
fended,  Sir,  at  the  freedom  of  any  who  are  so  kind  as  to 
teach  me  to  know  myself;  and  the  inconsistency  of  my 
letter  to  you,  which  you  are  so  good  as  to  point  out,  is, 
alas !  an  addition  to  the  many  inconsistencies  of  which 
I  fear  I  have  been  too  often  guilty  through  life. 

"You  will,  I  dare  say,  be  glad  to  hear  that  there  ex 
ists  a  hope  that,  ere  long,  the  dissenters  from  the  Estab 
lishment  will  not  enjoy  greater  privileges  than  the  min 
isters  of  the  Establishment  themselves. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

"Dear  Sir, 
"Your  obliged  servant, 


Thus,  in  spite  of  his  most  earnest  endeavors  to  obtain 
employment,  he  remained  poor  for  many  years ;  indeed 
it  has  often  been  an  enigma  to  me  how,  in  these  early 
days,  my  father  contrived  to  meet  the  necessary  ex 
penses  of  settling  in  London ;  but  I  have  lately  discov 
ered,  from  an  old  memorandum,  that  during  this  early 
period  his  eldest  brother  Robert  kindly  contributed 
£100  per  annum  for  a  few  years  ;  and  that  in  1809, 
when  all  the  expenses  of  his  removal  into  Yorkshire 
took  place,  he  lent  my  father  about  £500 ;  an  assist- 


MEMOIR  OF   THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  77 

ancc  which  must  have  "been  of  the  greatest  importance 
to  him  at  this  particular  time. 

I  "believe  he  had  not  been  long  in  London  before  he 
became  known,  and  his  society  sought  after  in  various 
quarters.       One  of  the  earliest  friendships    he    formed 
/   on  coining  there  was  that  of  Lord  Holland,   whose  ac- 
j    quaintance  lie  had  previously  made  when  on  a  visit  to 
j   his  eldest  brother  Robert,   at  college ;    and  the  subse 
quent  marriage  of  this  brother  with  Miss  Vernon,  Lord 
Holland's    aunt,   perhaps  the  more  inclined  Lord    Hol 
land  to  cultivate  one  with  whose  merits  he  was  then  but 
slightly  acquainted. 

I  have  often  heard  my  father  speak  of  his  first  in 
troduction  to  Holland  House — the  most  formidable  or 
deal,  considering  the  talents  of  its  host  and  hostess  and 
the  society  always  to  be  found  there,  that  a  young  and 
obscure  man  could  well  go  through.  He  was  shy  too 
then ;  but  I  believe,  in  spite  of  the  shyness,  they  soon 
discovered  and  acknowledged  his  merits,  and  deemed  him 
no  unmeet  company  for  their  world — and  what  a  world 
it  was ! 

I  can  hardly  write  of  my  father,  and  not  pause  a 
moment  to  speak  of  that  society  of  which  he  afterward 
so  frequently  formed  a  part,  and  to  which  he  was  bound 
through  life  by  every  tic  of  social  enjoyment,  gratitude, 
and  friendship.  The  world  has  rarely  seen,  and  will  rare 
ly,  if  ever,  see  again,  all  that  was  to  be  found  within  the 
walls  of  Holland  House.  Genius  and  merit,  in  whatever 
rank  of  life,  became  a  passport  there,  and  all  that  was 
choicest  and  rarest  in  Europe  seemed  attracted  to  that 
spot  as  to  their  natural  soil. 

Then  the  house  itself — a  beautiful  specimen  of  the 
olden  times  ;  with  its  ancient  banqueting-hall,  recalling 
traditions  of  past  grandeur ;  and  its  noble  library,  full 
of  the  wisdom  of  ages,  and  hung  round  with  the  por- 


78  MEMOIR  OF  THE    REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

traits  of  those  who  so  often  animated  it  with  their  pres 
ence,  ought  not  to  "be  forgotten. 

How  melancholy  to  feel  that  so  many  of  those  who, 
together  with  their  much-loved  host,  acted  so  great  a  part 
in  our  own  times,  and  have  left  names  that  will  live  long 
after  them,  are  now  gone  I 

My  father  found  in  Lord  Holland  one  able  and  willing 
to  appreciate  him,  and  whose  society  it  was  impossible 
to  enjoy  without  loving  as  well  as  admiring  him ;  and 
they  formed  together  one  of  those  true  friendships,  so  rare 
in  human  life,  "  which,  like  the  shadows  of  evening,  in 
crease  even  till  the  setting  of  the  sun."  I  do  not  of  course 
presume  to  speak  of  Lord  Holland  but  in  reference  to  the 
charm  of  his  intercourse  with  my  father,  which  I  had 
such  frequent  opportunities  of  witnessing ;  and  it  always 
seemed  to  me  on  such  occasions  that  there  never  were 
two  men  who,  from  the  constitution  of  their  minds,  were 
more  calculated  to  enjoy  and  understand  each  other's 
character  than  Lord  Holland  and  Sydney  Smith.  The 
same  intense  love  of  public  liberty  and  public  happi 
ness,  the  same  exquisite  enjoyment  of  wit  and  humor, 
the  same  clearness  and  conciseness  of  understanding, 
with  great  constitutional  gayety  of  spirits,  made  their 
conversation  more  charming  to  listen  to  than  it  is  well 
possible  to  conceive  without  having  done  so,  and  evi 
dently  productive  of  the  purest  enjoyment  to  themselves. 
It  was  short,  varied,  interspersed  with  wit,  illustration, 
and  anecdote  on  both  sides ;  in  short,  it  was  the  perfec 
tion  of  social  intercourse,  a  sort  of  menial  dram-drink- 
ing^  rare  as  it  was  delightful. 

From  the  opportunities  thus  afforded  my  father  of 
meeting  at  Holland  House  all  the  best  Whig  society, 
his  acquaintance  in  London  increased  rapidly ;  and  as 
lie  became  generally  known  there,  his  company  was  ea 
gerly  sought  for. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  79 

Meantime  his  reputation  was  spreading  in  other  and 
Letter  ways  than  by  the  powers  of  his  conversation 
alone.  His  negotiation  to  obtain  a  license  from  the 
clergyman  of  the  parish,  to  preach  in  the  chapel  then 
occupied  by  the  sect  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  failed,  as 
we  have  seen ;  but  in  addition  to  the  evening  preacher- 
ship  of  the  Foundling  Hospital,  he  had  for  two  years,  at 
the  request  of  Mr.  Bowerbank,  the  proprietor  of  Berke 
ley  Chapel,  in  John  Street,  Berkeley  Square,  officiated 
as  the  morning  preacher  there.  The  chapel  had  been 
so  deserted  (though  the  position  was  very  advantageous), 
that  Mr.  Bowerbank  had  been  for  some  time  endeavor 
ing  to  dispose  of  it.  In  a  few  weeks  after  my  father 
accepted  it,  not  a  seat  was  to  be  had:  gentlemen  and 
ladies  frequently  stood  in  the  aisles  throughout  the 
whole  service.  All  idea  was  then  given  up  of  disposing 
of  it  by  the  proprietor  ;  and  till  my  father  left  London, 
in  1809,  he  continued  morning  preacher  there,  alter 
nately  with  Fitzroy  Chapel.  The  concise,  bold  raci- 
ness  of  his  style  was  singularly  calculated  to  stir  up  a 
lazy  London  congregation,  accustomed  to  slumber  over 
their  weekly  sermon ;  and  the  earnestness  of  his  man 
ner,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  caused  many  to  think  who 
never  thought  before.*  Of  the  effect  his  preaching  pro 
duced  at  different  periods  of  his  life  I  have  the  most 
nattering  evidence.  When  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Dugald 
Stewart  exclaimed,  after  hearing  him  preach,  "Those 
original  and  unexpected  ideas  gave  me  a  thrilling  sensa 
tion  of  sublimity  never  before  awakened  by  any  other 
oratory ;"  when  his  virtuous  friend  Homer  expresses 
his  admiration  of  his  eloquence,  and  of  the  effect  it  pro 
duced  on  his  congregation ;  when  the  Bishop  of  Nor- 

*  My  father  had  the  satisfaction  more  than  once  of  receiving  letters 
of  gratitude,  assuring  him  that  his  preaching  had  not  heen  in  vain,  and 
had  stopped  the  writer  in  a  course  of  guilt  and  dissipation. 


80  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

wich  writes,  on  hearing  him  in  the  country,  "He  plainly 
showed  he  felt  what  he  said,  and  meant  that  others 
should  feel  too  ;"  when  another  very  distinguished  writ 
er,  on  reading  his  sermons,  says,  "  I  opened  on  the  Ser 
mon  on  Toleration,  and  could  not  lay  it  down ;  the 
wisdom,  truth,  and  beauty  of  it,  and  the  true  Christian 
spirit  shining  through  every  sentence,  and  illumina 
ting  the  whole  piece  as  with  a  celestial  light,  perfectly 
enchanted  me :  as  he  was  one  of  the  wisest  of  men, 
so  I  am  sure  he  was  one  of  the  best ;"  when  one  as 
true  as  he  is  distinguished  in  his  profession  remind 
ed  me  the  other  day  how  he  had  "both  seen  and  heard 
my  father's  emotion  in  the  pulpit ;  when  such  testi 
mony  is  given  Tby  such  men,  united  to  that  of  many 
others  which  will  appear  in  the  course  of  the  narrative, 
we  are  surely  justified  in  affirming  that,  though  origin 
ally  entering  into  the  Church  reluctantly,  yet  having 
done  so,  he  devoted  all  the  powers  of  his  heart  and 
mind  to  the  profession  to  which  he  had  before  devoted 
his  life. 

In  addition  to  his  fame  as  a  clergyman,  he  obtained 
considerable  increase  of  reputation  by  a  course  of  lec 
tures  on  Moral  Philosophy,  which  Sir  Thomas  Barnard, 
who  interested  himself  much  about  the  Eoyal  Insti 
tution,  proposed  to  him  to  give ;  and  which,  though 
my  father  speaks  of  them  as  without  merit  in  one  of 
his  letters  to  his  friend  Dr.  Whewell,  afford,  as  I  am 
told,  the  strongest  evidence  of  the  clearness  of  his  in 
tellect  and  the  justness  of  his  opinions.  They  gained 
so  much  at  the  time  from  the  charm  of  his  voice  and 
manner  of  delivery,  that  the  sensation  they  created  in 
London  is  perhaps  unexampled. 

"You  would  be  amused,"  says  his  friend  Mr.  Hor- 
ner,  in  his  Letters,  "to  hear  the  account  he  gives  of 
his  own  qualifications  for  the  task,  and  his  mode  of, 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  81 

manufacturing  philosophy;  he  will  do  the  thing  very 
cleverly,  I  have  little  doubt."* 

"I  was,"  says  Mrs.  Marcet,  "a  perfect  enthusiast 
during  the  delivery  of  those  lectures.  They  remain, 
but  he  who  gave  a  very  soul  to  them  by  his  inimitable 
manner  is  gone!  He  who  at  one  moment  inspired  his 
hearers  with  such  awe  and  reverence  by  the  solemn  piety 
of  his  manner,  that  his  discourse  seemed  converted  into 
a  sermon,  at  others,  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  wit,  made 
us  die  of  laughing.  The  impression  made  on  me  by 
these  lectures,  though  so  long  ago,  is  still  sufficiently 
strong  to  recall  his  manner  in  many  of  the  most  striking 
passages." 

"I  was  present  at  the  lectures  forty  years  ago," 
says  the  late  Sir  Robert  Peel,  "and  was  a  very  young 
man  at  the  time ;  but  I  have  not  forgotten  the  effect 
which  was  given  to  the  speech  of  Logan,  the  Indian 
Chief,  by  the  tone  and  spirit  in  which  it  was  recited." 
.  .  .  "I  do  not  find,"  he  adds,  "some  verses  I  recol 
lect  to  have  been  quoted  by  Mr.  Sydney  Smith,  to  which 
equal  effect  was  given." 

These  verses  alluded  to  were  a  beautiful  little  song 
of  Mrs.  Opie's,  "Go,  youth  beloved,  in  distant  glades:" 
and  she  gives  an  amusing  account,  in  a  letter  to  my 
mother,  of  my  father  suddenly  telling  her,  as  she  met 
him  at  the  entrance  of  the  lecture-room,  that  he  was 
going  to  quote  it.  She  describes  the  struggle  between 
her  timidity  and  her  vanity,  whether  she  should  enter ; 

*  An  eye-witness  says  :  "All  Albcmarle  Street,  and  a  part  of  Graf- 
ton  Street,  were  rendered  impassable  by  tbe  concourse  of  carriages 
assembled  there  during  the  time  of  their  delivery.  There  was  not  suf 
ficient  room  for  the  persons  assembling:  the  lobbies  were  filled,  and 
the  doors  into  them  from  the  lecture-room  were  left  open;  the  steps 
leading  into  its  area  were  all  occupied ;  many  persons,  to  obtain  seats, 
came  an  hour  before  the  time.  The  next  year  galleries  were  erected, 
which  had  never  before  been  required,  and  the  success  was  complete. 
He  continued  to  lecture  there  for  three  consecutive  years." 

D* 


82  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

and  the  new  light  in  which  both  she  and  her  poem 
seemed  to  shine  in  the  eyes  of  her  friends,  after  this 
notice  of  its  beauty  in  his  lecture. 

Mr.  Horner,  in  his  Life,  speaks  of  these  Lectures, 
calling  my  father  by  the  nom  de  guerre  he  had  in  their 
circle,  of  the  Bishop  of  Mickleham — the  name  of  his 
friend  Mr.  Sharpens  cottage  in  Surrey,  where  they  often 
assembled. 

"  His  Lordship's  success  has  been  beyond  all  possible 
conjecture — from  six  to  eight  hundred  hearers,  not  a  seat 
to  be  procured,  even  if  you  go  there  an  hour  before  the 
time.  Nobody  else,  to  be  sure,  could  have  executed 
such  an  undertaking  with  the  least  chance  of  success. 
For  who  could  make  such  a  mixture  of  odd  paradox, 
quaint  fun,  manly  sense,  liberal  opinions,  and  striking 
language  ?" 

They  have,  since  my  father's  death,  thanks  to  my 
mother  (who  luckily  preserved  a  considerable  portion 
of  them  from  the  flames,  to  which  he  had  as  usual  con 
demned  them),  been  given  to  the  public,  which  has  con 
firmed  this  opinion  of  his  friend  Horner.  Lord  Jeffrey, 
to  whom  they  were  submitted  in  manuscript,  had  at  first 
dissuaded  their  publication ;  but,  on  receiving  a  printed 
copy,  with  his  usual  candor  and  sweetness  of  disposi 
tion,  he  wrote  to  my  mother,  only  three  days  before  the 
fatal  illness  which  terminated  his  noble  life,  the  follow 
ing  letter : 

"I  am  now  satisfied  that,  in  what  I  then  said,  I  did 
great  and  grievous  injustice  to  the  merit  of  these  lec 
tures,  and  was  quite  wrong  in  dissuading  their  publi 
cation,  or  concluding  they  would  add  nothing  to  the 
reputation  of  the  author ;  on  the  contrary,  my  firm  im 
pression  is,  that,  with  few  exceptions,  they  will  do  him 
as  much  credit  as  any  thing  he  ever  wrote,  and  produce 
on  the  whole  a  stronger  impression  of  the  force  and  vi- 


MEMOIR   OF  THE    REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  83 

vacity  of  his  intellect,  as  well  as  a  truer  and  more  en 
gaging  view  of  liis  character,  than  most  of  what  the 
world  has  yet  seen  of  his  writings." 

The  following  lines  have  been  kindly  sent  me  by  Miss 
Berry's  executor,  Sir  Frankland  Lewis,  as  found  among 
her  papers  ;  and  as  Miss  Berry,  from  her  talents,  beauty, 
high  character,  her  friendship  with  Horace  Walpole,  her 
ninety  years  of  life  (thus,  as  it  were,  connecting  two 
centuries),  and  the  distinguished  society  always  to  be 
found  in  her  house,  almost  belongs  to  history,  she  gives 
to  these  lines  a  value  independent  of  their  intrinsic  mer 
its  : 

ODE    BY   MISS   BERRY 

OX    BUYIXG    A    NEW    BOXXET    TO    GO    TO    ONE    OF    MR.    SYDXEY    SMITTl's 
LECTURES — "OX    THE    SUBLIME." 

Lo !  where  the  gay ly- vestured  throng, 

Fair  Learning's  train,  are  seen, 
Wedged  in  close  ranks  her  walls  along, 

And  up  her  benches  green ! 
Unfolded  to  their  mental  eye 
Thy  awful  form,  Sublimity, 
The  moral  teacher  shows ; 

Sublimity !  of  silence  born, 

And  solitude,  'mid  "caves  forlorn," 
And  dimly  vision'd  woes, 
Or  steadfast  worth  that,  inly  great. 
Mocks  the  malignity  of  fate. 

"Whisper'd  Pleasure's  dulcet  sound 
Murmurs  the  crowded  room  around, 
And  Wisdom,  borne  on  Fashion's  pinion, 
Exulting  hails  her  new  dominion. 
Oh !  both  on  me  your  influence  shed ; 
Dwell  in  my  heart,  and  deck  my  head ! 

Where'er  a  broader,  browner  shade 

The  shaggy  beaver  throws, 
And  with  the  ample  feather's  aid, 

O'er-canopies  the  nose ; 
Where'er,  with  smooth  and  silken  pile, 
Lingering  in  solemn  pause  awhile, 

The  crimson  velvet  slows ; 


84  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

From  some  high  bench's  giddy  brink, 
With  me,  my  friend  begins  to  think, 

As  bolt  upright  we  sit, 
That  dress,  like  dogs,  should  have  its  day, 
That  beavers  are  too  hot  for  May, 

And  velvets  quite  unfit. 
Then  Taste,  in  maxims  sweet,  I  draw 

From  her  unerring  lip — 
"  How  light !  how  simple  are  the  straw ! 

How  delicate  the  chip!" 

Hush'd  is  the  speaker's  powerful  voice, 

The  audience  melt  away; 
I  fly  to  fix  my  final  choice, 

And  bless  the  instructive  day. 

The  milliner  officious  pours 

Of  hats  and  caps  her  ready  stores, 

The  unbought  elegance  of  spring ; 
Some,  wide,  disclose  the  full  round  face, 
Some,  shadowy,  lend  a  modest  grace, 

And  stretch  their  sheltering  wing. 
Here  clustering  grapes  appear  to  shed 
Their  luscious  juices  on  the  head, 

And  cheat  the  longing  eye : 
So  round  the  Phrygian  monarch  hung 
Fair  fruits,  that  from  his  parched  tongue 

Forever  seemed  to  fly. 
Here  early  blooms  the  summer  rose, 
Here  ribbons  wreathe  fantastic  bows ; 
There  plays  gay  plumage  of  a  thousand  dyes — 
Visions  of  beauty,  spare  my  aching  eyes  ! 

Ye  cumbrous  fashions,  crowd  not  on  my  head! 

Mine  be  the  chip  of  purest  white, 

SAvan-like,  and  as  her  feathers  light 
When  on  the  still  wave  spread; 

And  let  it  wear  the  graceful  dress 

Of  unadorned  simpleness ! 

Ah,  frugal  wish  !     Ah,  pleasing  thought ! 

Ah,  hope  indulged  in  vain  ! 
Of  modest  fancy  cheaply  bought, 

A  stranger  yet  to  Payne ! 
With  undissembled  grief  I  tell 

(For  sorrow  never  comes  too  late), 
The  simplest  bonnet  in  Pall  Mall 

Is  sold  for  one  pound  eight. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   HEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  85 

To  calculation's  sober  view, 

That  searches  every  plan, 
Who  keep  the  old,  or  buy  the  new, 

Shall  end  where  they  began. 
Alike  the  shabby  and  the  gay 
Must  meet  the  sun's  meridian  ray, 

The  air — the  dust — the  damp  : 
This,  shall  the  sudden  shower  despoil, 
That,  slow  decay  by  gradual  soil, 

Those,  envious  boxes  cramp. 

Who  will,  their  squander' d  gold  may  pay, 

Who  will,  our  taste  deride; 
We'll  scorn  the  fashion  of  the  day 

With  philosophic  pride. 

Methinks  we  thus,  in  accents  low, 

Might  Sydney  Smith  address  : 
"  Poor  moralist !  and  what  art  tliou, 

Who  never  spoke  of  dress  ? 
Thy  mental  hero  never  hung 
Suspended  on  a  tailor's  tongue, 

In  agonizing  doubt! 
Thy  tale  no  fluttering  female  show'd, 
Who  languish'd  for  the  newest  mode, 

Yet  dares  to  live  Avithout !" 


The  proceeds  of  these  lectures — for  which,  after  the 
first  series,  he  was  allowed  to  name  his  own  terms — 
enabled  him  to  furnish  his  new  house  in  Orchard  Street, 
where  he  continued  to  live  during  the  remainder  of  his 
residence  in  London,  and  where  two  more  children  were 
born  to  him  ;  a  son  who  died  in  infancy,  and  his  young 
est  daughter,  Emily. 

In  this  house,  though  from  the  various  sources  men 
tioned  his  means  were  slightly  increased,  yet  he  still 
remained  poor.  But  it  was  poverty  in  its  most  pleas 
ing  form  ;  not  that  struggle  with  wealth,  not  that  false 
shame,  the  outward  show,  the  constant  seeming,  which 
we  so  often  witness  in  the  world,  and  which  is  the  real 
sting  of  poverty ;  but  the  poverty  of  a  man  of  sense  who 
respected  himself. 


86  MEMOIR   OF  THE  KEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

All  was  consistent  about  him :  the  comfort  and  hap 
piness  of  home  he  considered  the  "grammar  of  life;" 
and  his  house,  though  plain,  often  in  every  sense  of  the 
word,  was  all  his  life  the  perfection  of  comfort.  Con 
sidering  domestic  comfort  so  important,  he  thought  no 
trouble  too  great,  no  detail  too  small,  to  merit  his  atten 
tion;  and,  though  brought  up  in  wealth  and  luxury, 
affection  soon  taught  his  wife  to  second  him.  He  never 
affected  to  be  what  he  was  not ;  he  never  concealed  the 
thought,  labor,  and  struggle  it  often  was  to  him  to  ob 
tain  the  simple  comforts  of  life  for  those  he  loved ;  as 
to  its  luxuries,  he  exercised  the  most  rigid  self-denial. 
His  favorite  motto,  which  through  life  he  inculcated  on 
his  family,  on  such  matters  was,  "Avoid  shame,  but 
do  not  seek  glory — nothing  so  expensive  as  glory ;" 
and  this  he  applied  to  every  detail  of  his  establish 
ment.  Nothing  could  be  plainer  than  his  table,  yet  his 
society  often  attracted  the  wealthy  to  share  his  single 
dish. 

But  the  pleasantest  society  at  his  house  was  to  be 
found  in  the  little  suppers  which  he  established  once  a 
week ;  giving  a  general  invitation  to  about  twenty  or 
thirty  persons,  who  used  to  come  as  they  pleased ;  and 
occasionally  adding  to,  and  varying  them  by  accidental 
and  invited  guests.  At  these  suppers  there  was  no  at 
tempt  at  display,  nothing  to  tempt  the  palate  ;  but  they 
were  most  eagerly  sought  after ;  and  were  I  to  begin 
enumerating  the  guests  usually  to  be  found  there,  no 
one  would  wonder  that  they  were  so.  There  are  still  a 
few  living  who  can  look  back  to  them,  and  I  have  al 
ways  found  them  do  so  with  a  sigh  of  regret.  There 
was  no  restraint  but  that  of  good  taste — no  formality— 
a  happy  mixture  of  men  and  women — the  foolish  and 
the  wise — the  grave  and  the  gay — and  sometimes  con 
versation  was  varied  bv  music.  I  see  it  stated  in  the 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  87 

Life  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  that  a  great  part  of  this 
choice  little  society  used  to  meet  likewise  every  week 
at  Sir  James's  house ;  and  one  present  says,  "  These 
social  meetings  left  so  delightful  an  impression  on  the 
minds  of  all  those  who  composed  them,  that  many  plans 
were  formed,  even  some  years  after,  to  renew  them  on 
Sir  James's  return  to  England ;  but,  alas !  no  pleasure 
is  renewed." 

To  these  suppers  occasionally  came  a  country  cousin 
of  my  father's — a  simple,  warm-hearted  rustic  ;  and  she 
used  to  come  up  to  him  and  whisper,  "Now,  Sydney, 
I  know  these  are  all  very  remarkable  men ;  do  tell  me 
who  they  are."  "  Oh,  yes,"  said  Sydney,  laughing; 
"that  is  Hannibal,"  pointing  to  Mr.  Whishaw ;  "he 
lost  his  leg  in  the  Carthaginian  War ;  and  that  is  Soc 
rates,"  pointing  to  Luttrell;  "and  that  is  Solon,"  point 
ing  to  Horner — "you  have  heard  of  Solon?"  The  girl 
opened  her  ears,  eyes,  and  mouth  with  admiration,  half 
doubting,  half  believing  that  Sydney  was  making  fun 
of  her ;  but  perfectly  convinced  that  if  they  were  not 
the  individuals  in  question,  they  were  something  quite 
as  great. 

It  was  on  occasion  of  one  of  these  suppers  that  Sir 
James  Mackintosh  happened  to  bring  with  him  a  raw 
Scotch  cousin,  an  ensign  in  a  Highland  regiment.  On 
hearing  the  name  of  his  host  he  suddenly  turned  round, 
and,  nudging  Sir  James,  said  in  an  audible  whisper, 
"Is  that  the  great  Sir  Sudney?"  "Yes,  yes,"  said 
Sir  James,  much  amused ;  and  giving  my  father  the 
hint,  on  the  instant  he  assumed  the  military  character, 
performed  the  part  of  the  hero  of  Acre  to  perfection, 
fought  all  his  battles  over  again,  and  showed  how  he 
had  charged  the  Turks,  to  the  infinite  delight  of  the 
young  Scotchman,  who  was  quite  enchanted  with  the 
kindness  and  condescension  of  "the  great  Sir  Sudney," 


88  MEMOIR  OF  THE   EEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

as  lie  called  him,  and  to  the  absolute  torture  of  the 
other  guests,  who  were  bursting  with  suppressed  laugh 
ter  at  the  scene  before  them.  At  last,  after  an  evening 
of  the  most  inimitable  acting  on  the  part  both  of  my 
father  and  Sir  James,  nothing  would  serve  the  young 
Highlander  but  setting  off,  at  twelve  o'clock  at  night, 
to  fetch  the  piper  of  his  regiment  to  pipe  to  "  the  great 
Sir  Sudney,"  who  said  he  had  never  heard  the  bagpipes  , 
upon  which  the  whole  party  broke  up  and  dispersed  in 
stantly,  for  Sir  James  said  his  Scotch  cousin  would 
infallibly  cut  his  throat  if  he  discovered  his  mistake.  A 
few  days  afterward,  wThen  Sir  James  Mackintosh  and 
his  Scotch  cousin  were  walking  in  the  streets,  they  met 
my  father  with  my  mother  on  his  arm.  He  introduced 
her  as  his  wife,  upon  which  the  Scotch  cousin  said  in  a 
low  voice  to  Sir  James,  and  looking  at  my  mother,  "I 
did  na  ken  the  great  Sir  Sudney  was  married."  "Why, 
no,"  said  Sir  James,  a  little  embarrassed  and  winking 
at  him,  "not  ex-act-ly  married — only  an  Egyptian  slave 
he  brought  over  with  him  ;  Fatima — you  know — you 
understand."  My  mother  was  long  known  in  the  little 
circle  as  Fatima. 

By  this  time  many  of  his  Scotch  friends  had  likewise 
come  to  England,  which  offered  a  wider  field  for  the  ex 
ercise  of  their  talents — Horner,  Lord  Webb  Seymour, 
Mr.  Brougham,  and  others,  with  whom  he  lived  on  terms 
of  the  greatest  intimacy,  and  who  contributed  much  to 
the  charm  of  his  little  suppers. 

He  was  very  early  elected  a  member  of  a  very  agree 
able  dining  club,  calling  itself  by  the  modest  title  of 
The  King  of  Clubs,  which  he  often  alludes  to  with 
pleasure  in  his  letters ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  year 
1838  that  he  was  admitted  into  that  very  remarkable 
literary  Club  established  by  Dr.  Johnson  and  his  friends, 
and  calling  itself  The  Club,  of  which  Dr.  Johnson  says, 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  EEV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  8i> 

"There  is  no  club  like  our  club."  On  its  books  may 
be  seen  the  names,  not  only  of  Johnson,  Goldsmith, 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  Burke,  Gibbon,  etc.  ;  but  a  list 
of  all  the  most  eminent  men  that  England  has  pro 
duced  in  every  class  and  rank  of  society  since  its  foun 
dation.  Mr.  Van  de  Weyer,  the  Belgian  Minister,  is, 
I  believe,  the  only  foreigner  that  has  ever  been  ad 
mitted  since  its  first  establishment ;  and,  as  was  ob 
served  to  him  by  a  distinguished  member  of  the  Club, 
on  being  so  admitted,  he  has  received  the  highest  title 
of  naturalization  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  this  country 
to  bestow. 

My  father  was  now,  with  many  of  his  early  friends, 
contributing  largely  to  the  Edinburgh  Review ;  and  as 
his  powers  and  principles  became  more  known,  he  of 
course  became  more  and  more  obnoxious  to  the  party  in 
power,  and  was  the  object  of  much  abuse  and  much  mis 
representation.  One  of  the  earliest  recollections  I  have, 
is  that  of  being  stopped  at  our  door,  when  returning 
from  my  walk,  by  Mr.  -  — ,  and  desired  to  tell  my 
father  that  the  King  had  been  reading  his  reviews,  and 
said,  "  He  was  a  very  clever  fellow,  but  that  he  would 
never  be  a  bishop."  He  felt  this  abuse  and  misrepre 
sentation  ;  and  the  hopelessness  of  his  situation,  where, 
in  his  profession,  no  merit  or  exertion  of  his  own  could 
advance  him  a  single  step,  and  where  his  only  alterna 
tive  was  poverty  or  baseness ;  but  he  seldom  allowed 
it  to  depress  him ;  for  he  thought,  with  his  sensible 
friend  Sharpe,  "if  you  can  not  be  happy  in  one  way, 
be  happy  in  another.  Many  in  this  world  run  after 
felicity  like  an  absent  man  hunting  for  his  hat,  while  all 
the  time  it  is  on  his  head  or  in  his  hand."  And  he  used 
to  say,  "  One  must  look  downward  as  well  as  upward  in 
human  life.  Though  many  have  passed  you  in  the  race, 
there  arc  many  you  have  left  behind.  Better  a  dinner 


90  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

of  herbs  and  a  pure  conscience,  than  the  stalled  ox  and 
infamy,  is  my  version." 

An  anecdote  has  lately  reached  me  from  a  very  early 
friend,  which  is  an  epitome  of  what  I  have  observed  of 
my  father  through  life,  and  has  quite  delighted  me — 
that  having  once  made  up  his  mind  as  to  what  he  ought 
to  do,  he  did  it,  be  the  consequences  what  they  might 
to  himself.  It  was  on  this  principle  he  entered  the 
Church,  on  this  he  acted  in  it,  and  on  every  important 
occasion  of  private  life.  He  was  going  to  preach  at 
the  Foundling  Hospital,  and  had  selected  a  sermon  con 
taining  a  strong  attack  upon  opinions  which  he  thought 
were  rapidly  increasing,  and  producing  most  injurious 
effects  on  religion.  My  mother  saw  and  knew  the 
sermon,  and  exclaimed,  "  Oh,  Sydney,  do  change  that 
sermon ;  I  know  it  will  give  such  offense  to  our  friends 
the  F—  — s,  should  they  be  there  this  evening."  "  I  fear 
it  will,"  said  my  father,  "and  am  sorry  for  it;  but, 
Kate,  do  you  think,  if  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  preach 
such  a  sermon  at  all,  that  I  can  refrain  from  doing  so 
from  the  fear  of  giving  offense?"  The  sermon  was 
preached,  the  offense  was  given,  and  he  felt  the  loss 
of  his  friends  deeply,  for  he  loved  and  valued  those  he 
offended.  Time  however  produced  its  usual  effects  on 
really  good  men :  my  father  lived  to  regain  their  friend 
ship,  and  I  have  reason  to  believe  there  are  few  who  love 
or  honor  his  memory  more  than  the  only  survivor  now 
left. 

In  the  year  1807  he  preached  a  sermon  on  Tol 
eration,  in  the  Temple  Church,  and  was  requested 
to  publish  it.  He  did  so,  and  added  the  following 
preface : 

"This  sermon  is  not  published  from  a  belief  that  it 
has  any  merit  in  composition,  or  any  claim  to  originality 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  91 

of  thinking,  Ibut  to  bear  my  share  of  testimony  against  a 
religious  clamor,  which  is  very  foolish  in  all  those  in 
whom  it  is  not  very  wicked. 

"I  am  sorry  to  write  what  I  know  it  has  been  ex 
tremely  disagreeable  to  many  of  those  before  whom  I 
am  in  the  habit  of  preaching  to  hear,  but  I  should  be 
infinitely  more  sorry  that  this  or  any  other  apprehen 
sion  should  prevent  me  from  doing  what  I  believe  to 
be  my  duty. 

"  Charity  toward  those  who  dissent  from  us  on  re 
ligious  opinions  is  always  a  proper  subject  for  the  pul 
pit.  If  such  discussions  militate  against  the  views  of 
any  particular  party,  the  fault  is  not  in  him  who  is 
thus  erroneously  said  to  introduce  politics  into  the 
Church,  but  in  those  who  have  really  brought  the 
Church  into  politics.  It  does  not  cease  to  be  our  duty 
to  guard  men  against  religious  animosities,  because  it 
suits  the  purpose  of  others  to  inflame  them ;  nor  are 
we  to  consider  the  great  question  of  religious  tolera 
tion  as  a  theme  fit  only  for  the  factions  of  Parliament, 
because  intolerance  has  lately  been  made  the  road  to 
power.  It  is  no  part  of  the  duty  of  a  clergyman  to 
preach  upon  subjects  purely  political,  but  it  is  not  there 
fore  his  duty  to  avoid  religious  subjects  which  have  been 
distorted  into  political  subjects,  especially  when  the  con 
sequence  of  that  distortion  is  a  general  state  of  error  and 
of  passion." 

Meantime  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  feeling  that  he 
was  not  leading  a  useless  life.  He  writes  :  "It  pleases 
me  sometimes  to  think  of  the  very  great  number  of 
important  subjects  which  have  been  discussed  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review  in  so  enlightened  a  manner ;  it  is 
a  sort  of  magazine  of  liberal  sentiments,  which  I  hope 
will  be  read  by  the  rising  generation,  and  infuse  into 


92  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

them  a  proper  contempt  for  tlieir  parents'  stupid  and 
unphilosophical  prejudices."  He  had  also  the  consola 
tion,  as  his  character  displayed  itself,  of  .obtaining  what 
he  said  was  the  one  "  earthly  good  worth  struggling  for, 
the  love  and  esteem  of  many  good  and  great  men." 
Among  these,  the  two  most  intimately  associated  with 
his  career  in  after-life  were  Lord  Grey  and  Lord  Carlisle 
(then  Lord  Morpeth).  To  the  constant  affection  and 
unvarying  kindness  of  Lord  Holland  and  these  two 
friends,  he  was  indebted  for  most  of  the  pleasures  that 
were  shed  upon  a  path  which,  to  any  man  of  less  energy 
of  character  and  buoyancy  of  spirits,  would  have  been 
for  many  years  a  very  dark  and  dreary  one.  But  there 
was  within  himself  a  natural  source  of  happiness — a 
perpetual  flow  of  spirits — a  cheerfulness  of  disposition, 
for  which  he  often  thanked  God,  as  one  of  the  greatest 
benefits  conferred  upon  him. 

At  this  period  of  his  life,  indeed,  his  spirits  were  often 
such  that  they  were  more  like  the  joyousness  and  play 
fulness  of  a  clever  school-boy  than  the  sobriety  and  grav 
ity  of  the  father  of  a  family  ;  and  his  gayety  was  so  irre 
sistible  and  so  infectious,  that  it  carried  every  thing  be 
fore  it.  Nothing  could  withstand  the  contagion  of  that 
ringing,  joy-inspiring  laugh,  which  seemed  to  spring 
from  the  fresh,  genuine  enjoyment  he  felt  at  the  multi 
tude  of  unexpected  images  which  sprang  up  in  his  mind, 
and  succeeded  each  other  with  a  rapidity  that  hardly  al 
lowed  his  hearers  to  follow  him,  but  left  them  panting 
and  exhausted  with  laughter,  to  cry  out  for  mercy. 

An  amusing  instance  of  this  occurred  once,  when  he 
met  that  Queen  of  Tragedy,  Mrs.  Siddons,  for  the  first 
time.  She  seemed  determined  to  resist  him,  and  pre 
serve  her  tragic  dignity ;  but  after  a  vain  struggle 
yielded  to  the  general  infection,  and  flung  herself  back 
in  her  chair,  in  such  a  fearful  paroxysm  of  laughter,  and 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  03 

of  such  long  continuance,  that  it  made  quite  a  scene, 
and  all  the  company  were  alarmed. 

He  contrived  to  make  the  most  commonplace  subjects 
amusing,  and  carried  every  body  along  with  him,  in  his 
wildest  flights  of  drollery.  One  evening,  the  subject  of 
conversation  was  the  meteorological  turn  of  mind  of  the 
English  nation.  "What  would  become  of  us  had  it 
pleased  Providence  to  make  the  weather  unchangeable  ? 
Think  of  the  state  of  destitution  of  the  morning  callers. 
Now,  I  will  give  you  a  specimen  of  their  conversation : 
Mrs.  Jackson  and  Mrs.  Jones,  two  respectable  ancient 
females,  shall  be  calling  upon  Mrs.  Green,  and  Mrs. 
Brown  shall  join  their  party,  and  return  by  moonlight ; 
Mrs.  Brown  shall  catch  cold  and  expire  in  the  arms  of 
her  friend,  calling  for  peppermint  water,  and  exclaiming, 
4  The  moon!  the  moon!'"  And  taking  up  his  pen, 
partly  from  the  comical  delight  he  had  in  what  he  was 
doing,  partly  from  the  exquisite  commonplaces  he  strung- 
together,  and  the  faithful  picture  he  drew  of  a  morning 
visit  in  England,  he  kept  us  all  in  such  roars  of  laugh 
ter,  and  he  laughed  so  heartily  himself  as  he  wrote,  that 
we  all  went  quite  exhausted  to  bed ;  the  very  recollec 
tion  of  that  scene,  even  at  this  distance  of  time,  makes 


me  laugh  again  as  I  write. 


Another  clay  he  came  home,  with  two  hackney-coach 
loads  of  pictures,  which  he  had  met  with  at  an  auction  ; 
having  found  it  impossible  to  resist  so  many  yards  of 
brown-looking  figures  and  faded  landscapes  going  "for 
absolutely  nothing — unheard  of  sacrifices."  Kate  hard 
ly  knew  whether  to  laugh  or  to  cry,  when  she  saw  these 
horribly  dingy  objects  enter  her  pretty  little  drawing- 
room,  and  looked  at  him  as  if  she  thought  him  half  mad; 
and  half  mad  he  was,  but  with  delight  at  his  purchase. 
He  kept  walking  up  and  down  the  room,  waving  his 
arms,  putting  them  in  fresh  lights,  declaring  they  were 


94  MEMOIR    OF   THE    EEV.    SYDNEY    SMITH. 

exquisite  specimens  of  art,  and,  if  not  by  the  very  best 
masters,  merited  to  be  so. 

He  invited  all  his  friends,  displayed  them  at  his  sup 
pers,  insisted  upon  their  being  looked  at  and  admired  in 
every  point  of  view,  discovered  fresh  beauties  for  each 
new  comer ;  and,  for  three  or  four  days,  under  the  magic 
influence  of  his  wit  and  imagination,  these  gloomy  old 
pictures  were  a  perpetual  source  of  amusement  and  fun. 

At  last,  finding  he  was  considered  no  authority  in  the 
fine  arts,  and  that  his  pictures  made  no  progress  in  pub 
lic  opinion,  off  they  went,  to  my  mother's  great  relief,  as 
suddenly  as  they  came,  to  another  auction ;  but  all  re- 
christened  first  by  himself,  amidst  his  laughing  friends, 
with  names  never  before  heard  of.  One,  I  remember, 
was  "a  beautiful  landscape,  by  Nicholas  de  Falda,  a 
pupil  of  Valdeggio,  the  only  painting  by  that  eminent 
artist."  The  pictures  sold,  I  believe,  for  rather  less  than 
he  gave  for  them  under  their  original  names,  which  were 
probably  as  real  as  their  assumed  ones. 

On  another  occasion  he  took  it  into  his  head  to  make 
a  crusade  against  an  unfortunate  Mrs.  Dumplin,  who 
was  filled  with  the  ambition  of  giving  a  rout.  He  found 
every  body  going  away  from  his  house,  and  all  to  Mrs. 
Dumplin's  rout ;  upon  which  he  reasoned,  he  laughed, 
he  persuaded,  he  quizzed,  he  entreated,  he  painted  and 
described  in  such  glowing  colors  the  horrors  of  a  Dum 
plin  rout — the  heat,  the  crowd,  the  bad  lemonade,  the 
ignominy  of  appearing  next  day  in  the  "Morning  Post'' 
—that  at  last,  with  one  accord,  all  turned  back,  finding- 
it  impossible  to  leave  him.  He  shouted  victory,  and 
Mrs.  Dumplin  was  heard  of  no  more.  Yet  in  the  midst 
of  all  this  wild  mirth  and  genuine  enjoyment  of  youth 
and  health,  a  pretty  domestic  trait  occurs  to  my  mind, 
which,  from  such  a  man,  then  the  idol  of  the  London 
world,  deserves  to  be  told.  One  of  his  little  children, 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  -J5 

then  in  delicate  health,  had  for  some  time  been  in  the 
habit  of  waking  suddenly  every  evening;  sobbing,  an 
ticipating  the  death  of  parents,  and  all  the  sorrows  of 
life,  almost  before  life  had  begun.  He  could  not  bear 
this  unnatural  union  of  childhood  and  sorrow,  and  for  a 
long  period,  I  have  heard  my  mother  say,  each  evening- 
found  him,  at  the  waking  of  his  child,  with  a  toy,  a  pic 
ture-book,  a  bunch  of  grapes,  or  a  joyous  tale,  mixed 
with  a  little  strengthening  advice  and  the  tenderest  ca 
resses,  till  the  habit  was  broken,  and  the  child  woke  to 
joy  and  not  to  sorrow. 

These  are  some  of  the  little  nothings  which  he  had 
the  art  to  turn  into  somethings,  but  which,  I  fear,  re 
sume  their  original  insignificance  under  my  pen ;  for  I 
feel  it  impossible  to  give  to  them  the  life  and  raciness 
they  had  in  reality,  and  which  constituted  their  chief 
charm. 


CHAPTER   V. 

1806.  Political  Changes. — Obtains  Preferment. — 1807.  Goes  to  Sun 
ning  in  the  Autumn. — Writes  Peter  Plymley. — Its  Effect. — Makes 
the  Acquaintance  of  Lord  Stowell. — Revisits  Edinburgh. — Goes  to 
Hovvick. — No  House  on  the  Living. — Non-residence  permitted. — 
The  Residence  Bill  passed. — Goes  down  to  see  the  Living. — Diffi 
culties. — Returns  to  London. — Publishes  Sermons. — Removes  Family 
to  Yorkshire. — Tries  to  negotiate  Exchange  of  Living. — Difficulties 
of  Exchange. — Necessity  of  Building. — Settles  at  Heslington. 

IN  1806  those  political  changes  took  place  which  so 
unexpectedly,  and  for  so  short  a  period,  brought  the 
Whigs  into  power. 

To  one  who,  as  he  says,  "had  lived  so  long  on  the 
north  side  of  the  wall,  this  ray  of  sunshine  was  very 
cheering,  and  gave  some  hopes  that  he  who  had  so  well 
and  so  honestly  fought  the  good  fight,  would  now  have 
some  opportunity  afforded  him  of  exerting  himself  in 
his  profession."  But  as  he  had  no  connections  and 
little  political  interest,  I  do  not  know  what  might  have 
Tbeeri  the  result,  had  it  not  "been  for  the  indefatigable 
exertions  of  his  friends  at  Holland  House,  who  never 
rested  till  they  saw  justice  done  to  him,  and  had  ob 
tained  from  the  Chancellor,  Lord  Erskine,  the  living  of 
Foston-le-Clay,  in  Yorkshire,  for  him. 

For  this  he  always  felt  that  he  owed  Lord  and  Lady 
Holland  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude ;  as,  in  addition  to  the 
immediate  increase  of  his  income,  being  a  permanent 
provision,  it  gave  him  the  first  feeling  of  independence 
and  security  that  he  had  enjoyed  after  a  life  of  anxiety 
and  uncertainty.  An  old  friend  of  my  father's  told  me 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  <>7 

the  other  day,  "I  was  present  at  Bishopthorpe  when 
your  father  first  came  down  to  be  inducted  to  the  living 
of  Foston  (now  nearly  fifty  years  ago),  under  the  reign 
of  old  Archbishop  Markham;  I  was  then  so  young  as 
to  be  placed  at  the  side-table  in  that  large  dining-room ; 
but  I  well  remember  the  unwonted  animation  and  the 
brilliant  conversation  that  constantly  attracted  all  our 
attention  to  the  great  table,  and  which  we  were  told 
proceeded  from  a  young  clergyman  of  the  name  of  Syd 
ney  Smith,  just  come  down  to  take  possession  of  a 
living  in  Yorkshire.  When  he  went  away,  the  old 
Archbishop,  I  could  see,  though  struck  with  his  extraor 
dinary  abilities,  did  not  half  like,  or  understand,  how 
one  of  the  inferior  clergy  should  be  so  much  in  posses 
sion  of  his  faculties  in  the  presence  of  his  diocesan.  On 
my  return  home  the  next  day  I  found  my  family  in  a 
state  of  great  excitement.  They  had  just,  they  said, 
had  a  long  visit  from  the  most  delightful  person  they 
had  ever  met,  a  Mr.  S.  Smith,  who  had  brought  letters 
of  introduction  from  Lord  Abinger,  then  Mr.  Scarlett, 
saying  that  the  bearer  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
young  men  then  in  London,  and  congratulating  my 
mother  on  the  probability  of  having  such  a  man  estab 
lished  in  her  neighborhood — a  piece  of  good  fortune 
which,  when  it  did  happen  shortly  after,  she  fully  ap 
preciated,  and  was  not  inclined  to  neglect.  From  this 
time  we  saw  more  and  more  of  him ;  and  though  I  have 
enjoyed  now  all  that  is  best  in  life,  I  think  if  1  were  to 
select  the  day  of  my  life  that  has  left  the  most  agreeable 
impression  on  my  mind,  it  would  be  a  long  summer 
afternoon  we  all  spent  with  your  father  at  Heslington. 
We  walked  over  with  Lord  -  -  and  several  of  the 
lawyers  of  the  Northern  Circuit,  and  found  a  Mrs. 
Hamilton  in  the  house,  who  had  just  come  from  Edin 
burgh.  The  weather  was  lovely,  every  thing  looked 
VOL.  L— E 


98  MEMOIR   OF  THE  KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

bright,  your  father  and  Lord  -  -  were  in  the  highest 
spirits ;  the  conversation  turned  on  Edinburgh,  the 
mode  of  life  there,  the  remarkable  men  .it  contained  or 
had  produced ;  it  was  most  brilliant  and  interesting — 
the  first  taste  I  had  had  of  what  I  must  still  think  the 
perfection  of  society.  After  dinner  we  all  walked  back 
by  moonlight.  '  I  have  never  forgot  that  day  ;  I  think 
it  was  one  of  the  happiest  of  my  life,  and  this  has  not 
been  an  unhappy  one,  as  you  know.'  *' 

In  the  summer  of  1807  he  took  his  family  for  a  short 
time  to  a  little  cottage  in  the  village  of  Sunning,  near 
Reading,  to  give  them  their  first  taste  of  the  country ; 
and  even  now  I  recollect  with  delight  "each  rural  sight, 
each  rural  sound" — this  first  breath  of  air,  free  from 
carpet-shakings,  that  we  had  inhaled. 

I  believe  it  was  about  this  period  that  a  letter  from 
Peter  Plymley  to  his  brother  Abraham,  on  the  subject 
of  the  Irish  Catholics,  appeared  suddenly  in  the  London 
world.  Its  effect,  I  have  been  told,  was  like  a  spark 
on  a  heap  of  gunpowder.  It  was  instantly  dispersed 
all  over  London,  was  to  be  found  on  every  table,  spread 
in  every  direction  over  the  country,  and  was  the  topic 
of  general  conversation  and  conjecture.  It  was  quickly 
followed  by  another  and  another;  each  fresh  letter  in 
creased  the  eagerness  and  curiosity  of  the  public.  Every 
effort  was  made  on  the  part  of  the  existing  Government 
to  find  out  the  author — in  vain :  the  secret  was  well 
kept.  It  is  true,  strong  suspicion  pointed  toward  the 
little  village  in  which  my  father  then  was,  and  a  few  of 
those  best  acquainted  with  his  style  felt  convinced  there 
was  but  one  man  in  England  who  could  so  write — who 
could  make  the  most  irresistible  wit  and  pleasantry  the 
vehicle  of  the  soundest  and  most  unanswerable  argu 
ment  ;  but  no  proof  could  be  obtained.  The  editions 
were  bought  up  as  fast  as  they  could  be  printed,  and  I 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  99 

am  afraid  from  memory  to  state  the  numbers  that  were 
sold. 

At  the  request  of  the  Catholics,  cheaper  editions  were 
made  for  dispersion  in  Ireland ;  and  few  works,  I  have 
heard,  ever  did  more  to  open  men's  minds  to  the  ab 
surdity  and  danger  of  the  system  then  pursued  by  En 
gland,*  and  there  arc,  or  rather  were,  few  Catholics  who 
did  not  venerate  the  name  of  Sydney  Smith,  as  one 
who,  though  an  honest  servant  of  another  church,  felt 
that  the  strongest  tenet  of  that  church  was  charity  and 
mercy  ;  and  in  this  feeling  labored  incessantly  to  remove 
the  heavy  burdens  and  disqualifications  imposed  on  them 
by  the  actual  state  of  the  laws. 

And  let  no  man  say  that  he  labored  in  vain  ;  that  the 
seeds  he  sowed  have  not  brought  forth  fruit,  though  not 
all  the  fruit  they  would  have  produced  had  they  been 
sown  when  they  were  offered. 

All  admit  much  has  still  to  be  done,  and  much  time 
must  elapse  before  such  sufferings  can  be  forgotten  ;  but 
look  what  Ireland  was  when  my  father  first  entered  life, 
in  the  midst  of  the  tumult  and  violence  of  the  French 
Revolution,  and  look  at  what  it  has  been  of  late ;  look 
at  what  he  advised,  and  how  he  advised  it ;  look  at 
what  has  been  done;  and  who  will  then  say  that  the 
efforts  of  such  a  man  were  unavailing,  that  his  honest 
labors  were  in  vain,  that  he  who  dedicated  the  fine  tal 
ents  God  had  given  him  from  early  youth  to  the  hour 
of  his  death,  to  spread  religious  toleration,  has  not  clone 
good  in  his  generation  ?  I  believe  that  his  memory  will 
live  with  the  good  men  of  every  land,  and  that  his  best 
monument  will  be  the  love  and  respect  of  his  countrymen. 

*  Lord  Holland,  I  see,  bears  witness  to  the  powerful  effect  this  work 
and  the  Edinburgh  Review  had  on  this  question,  in  his  Reminiscences 
of  that  period  ;  and  Lord  Murray,  in  writing  of  it  says,  "After  Pascal's 
Letters,  it  is  the  most  instructive  piece  of  wisdom  in  the  form  of  irony 
ever  written,  and  had  the  most  important  and  lasting  effects." 


100  MEMOIR  OF  THE    KEY.    SYDNEY    SMITH. 

Eeferring — some  time  after  my  father  had  left  Lon 
don  for  Yorkshire — to  Peter  Plymley,  Lord  Holland 
writes  to  him  from  Dropmore  : 

"  MY  DEAR  SYDNEY, 

"  I  wish  you  could  have  heard  my  conversation  with 
Lord  Grenville  the  other  day,  and  the  warm  and  enthu 
siastic  way  in  which  he  spoke  of  Peter  Plyrnley.  I  did 
not  fail  to  remind  him  that  the  only  author  to  whom  we 
both  thought  it  could  "be  compared  in  English,  lost  a 
bishopric  for  his  wittiest  performance ;  and  I  hoped  that, 
if  we  could  discover  the  author,  and  had  ever  a  bishopric 
in  our  gift,  we  should  prove  that  Whigs  were  both  more 
grateful  and  more  liberal  than  Tories. 

"He  rallied  me  upon  the  affectation  of  concealing 
who  it  was,  but  added  that  he  hoped  Peter  would  not 
always  live  in  Yorkshire ;  for,  among  other  reasons,  we 
felt  the  want  of  him  just  now  in  the  state  of  the  press, 
and  that  he  wished  to  God  Abraham  would  do  some 
thing  to  provoke  him  to  take  up  the  pen  again." 

In  this  little  village  of  Sunning  he  first  made  the  ac 
quaintance  of  Sir  William  Scott,  afterward  Lord  Stowell, 
then  our  nearest  neighbor,  whose  society  he  found  most 
agreeable ;  and  by  whom,  though  differing  on  almost 
every  point  of  politics,  he  was  fully  appreciated,  and  his 
acquaintance  eagerly  sought  after  by  him,  not  only  then, 
but  during  the  remainder  of  my  father's  life,  whenever 
opportunity  offered,  in  London ;  and  during  the  period 
of  this  intercourse  he  not  unfrequently  said  to  my  father, 
"Ah,  Mr.  Smith,  you  would  have  been  in  a  different 
situation,  and  a  far  richer  man,  if  you  would  have  be 
longed  to  us."  These  observations,  from  one  so  cautious, 
so  sagacious,  and  so  strong  a  politician  as  Lord  Stowell, 
were,  of  course,  gratifying  to  my  father,  as  they  showed 


]MEMOIlt   OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  ]ol 

that  his  powers  and  talents  were*  fully  felt  and  appre 
ciated  by  his  political  opponents. 

On  his  return  to  town,  receiving  .an  invitation,  I  1  re 
lieve  from  his  friend  Mr.  Sharp,  "to  dine  mtli ,  hiiri ,  at 
Fishmongers'  Hall,  he  sent  the  foilowmg^playiul  answer;* 
which,  trifling  as  it  is,  as  my  tale  is  made  up  of  trifles, 
I  shall  give : 

"  Much  do  I  love,  at  civic  treat, 
The  monsters  of  the  deep  to  eat ; 
To  see  the  rosy  salmon  lying, 
By  smelts  encircled,  born  for  frying  ; 
And  from  the  china  boat  to  pour 
On  flaky  cod,  the  ilavor'd  shower. 
Thee,  above  all,  I  much  regard, 
Flatter  than  Longman's  flattest  bard, 
Much  honor' d  turbot ! — sore  I  grieve 
Thee  and  thy  dainty  friends  to  leave. 
Far  from  ye  all,  in  snuggest  corner, 
I  go  to  dine  with  little  Homer : 
He  who,  with  philosophic  eye, 
Sat  brooding  o'er  his  Christmas  pie  : 
Then,  firm  resolved,  with  either  thumb, 
Tore  forth  the  crust-enveloped  plum, 
And,  mad  with  youthful  dreams  of  future  fame, 
Proclaim'd  the  deathless  glories  of  his  name.'' 

Ill  the  autumn  of  this  year,  1808,  lie  paid  «i  short 
visit  to  his  old  haunts  in  Edinburgh,  and  on  his  return 
visited  for  the  first  time  Lord  Roslyn  and  Lord  Grey ; 
saw  the  latter  (where  he  was  ever  best  seen)  in  the  midst 
of  his  family,  at  Howick ;  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
that  friendship  which  was  a  constant  source  of  pleasure 
and  gratification  to  him  in  after-life,  and  ended  only 
with  his  death. 

As  there  was  no  house  on  his  living,  and  no  means 
of  procuring  one  in  the  neighborhood,  and  the  popula- 
lion  of  the  parish  was  small,  Dr.  Markham,  the  then 
Archbishop  of  York,  permitted  his  continued  residence 
in  town,  on  condition  of  his  appointing  an  efficient  cu 
rate  ;  till  the  passing  of  the  Residence  Bill  by  Mr.  Per- 


102  MEMOIR  OF   THE  REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

cival,  in  1808  (a  bill  the  most  just  in  its  intentions,  and 
the  most  unjust  in  -its  effects),  compelled  him  to  resign 
or-, ."build.  ,- 

From  the  blamable  negligence  on  the  subject  of  resi 
dence-  of  the  clergy,- .  which  had  existed  for  so  long  a 
period  in  the  Church,  one-third  of  the  parsonage-houses 
in  England  had  gone  to  decay ;  and  thus,  by  the  effects 
of  this  bill,  one  generation  of  clergymen  was  compelled 
suddenly  to  atone  for  the  accumulated  sins  of  their  pre 
decessors,  and  to  benefit  their  successors  by  building 
parsonage-houses  out  of  their  own  private  fortunes  ;  un 
aided,  save  by  a  sum  (I  think  a  two  or  three  years'  in 
come  of  the  living)  which  they  were  allowed  to  borrow 
from  Queen  Anne's  Bounty.  Of  this  sum  they  were  to 
repay  a  portion  each  year,  with  interest  upon  the  rest ; 
and  thus,  if  they  retained  the  living  a  few  years,  they 
were  obliged  to  refund  the  whole  sum,  and  it  was  utterly 
lost  to  them  and  their  families. 

On  receiving  the  startling  summons  from  the  Arch 
bishop,  my  father  went  down  immediately  into  York 
shire,  to  see  what  his  fate  was  to  be.  He  found  his 
living  well  deserved  its  name  of  Foston-le-Clay ;  con 
sisting  as  it  did  of  three  hundred  acres  of  glebe-land  of 
the  stiffest  clay,  in  a  remote  village  of  Yorkshire,  where 
there  had  not  been  a  resident  clergyman  for  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  owing  to  the  wretched  state  of  the  hovel 
which  had  once  been  a  parsonage-house.  This  consisted 
of  one  brick-floored  kitchen,  with  a  room  above  it,  which 
was  in  so  dangerous  a  condition  that  the  farmer,  who 
had  occupied  it  hitherto,  declined  living  any  longer  in 
it,  and  which  opened  on  one  side  into  a  foal-yard,  and 
on  the  other  into  the  church-yard ;  and  placed  in  a  vil 
lage  where  there  .  was  no  society  above  the  rank  of  a 
farmer. 

His  parishioners  were  so  unaccustomed  to  the  sights 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  li.i:; 

of  civilized  life,  that  they  could  hardly  recover  from  their 
surprise  at  the  sight  of  a  gentleman  from  London  in  a 
superfine  coat  and  a  four-wheeled  carriage. 

The  prospect,  it  must  be  allowed,  was  not  cheering, 
either  morally  or  physically;  for  the  country  was  as 
unpromising  as  the  house.  The  clerk,  the  most  import 
ant  man  in  the  village,  was  summoned  ;  a  man  who  ha d 
numbered  eighty  years,  looking,  with  his  long  gray  hair, 
his  threadbare  coat,  deep  wrinkles,  stooping  gait,  and 
crutch-stick,  more  ancient  than  the  parsonage-house. 
He  looked  at  my  father  for  some  time  from  under  his 
gray  shaggy  eyebrows,  and  held  a  long  conversation 
with  him,  in  which  the  old  clerk  showed  that  age  had 
not  quenched  the  natural  shrewdness  of  the  Yorkshire- 
man.  At  last,  after  a  pause,  he  said,  striking  his 
crutch-stick  on  the  ground,  "  Muster  Smith,  it  often 
stroikes  moy  moind,  that  people  as  comes  frae  London 
is  such  fools.  .  .  .  But  you,"  he  said  (giving  him  a 
nudge  with  his  stick),  "I  see  you  arc  no  fool."  Hav 
ing  thus  gained  the  respect  of  the  old,  prejudiced  clerk, 
lie  endeavored  to  prove  himself  no  fool.  He  examined 
carefully  and  understood  thoroughly  all  the  difficulties 
of  his  position,  viz.  a  house  to  be  built  without  expe 
rience  or  money ;  a  family  and  furniture  to  be  moved 
into  the  heart  of  Yorkshire — a  process,  in  the  year  1808, 
as  difficult  as  a  journey  to  the  back  settlements  of  Amer 
ica  now,  to  a  man  of  small  means ;  the  absolute  ne 
cessity  of  becoming  a  farmer,  the  living  consisting  of 
land  and  no  tithe,  there  being  no  farm-buildings  on  it 
to  enable  him  to  let  it,  and  the  profound  ignorance  of 
all  agricultural  pursuits  inevitable  in  a  man  who  had 
passed  life  hitherto  in  towns,  and  whose  time  and  atten 
tion  had  been  divided  between  preaching,  literature,  and 
society. 

Add  to  these,  the  moral  difficulty  of  breaking  through 


J04  MEMOlli   OF   THE   KEY.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

all  the  habits  of  his  life,  and  tearing  himself  from  the 
many  valuable  friends  he  had  by  this  time  formed,  and 
who  delighted  in  his  society.  But  he  felt  it  a  duty,  both 
to  his  profession  and  family,  that  the  effort  should  be 
made. 

He  returned  immediately  to  London,  and  obtained 
the  means  of  transporting  his  family  and  furniture,  by 
the  publication  of  two  volumes  of  the  sermons  he  had 
preached  during  his  residence  there  with  so  much  suc 
cess.  The  means  obtained,  and  the  order  of  march 
arranged,  he  set  about  breaking  tip  his  little  estab 
lishment  in  London,  which  was  not  effected  without 
great  opposition  from  his  friends  there,  and  many  kind 
attempts  and  schemes  to  detain  him  among  them. 
)  We  all  left  town  in  the  summer  of  1809.  He  pro- 
Deeded  the  party,  and  hired  for  their  reception  a  small 
but  cheerful  house  in  a  village  about  two  miles  from 
York ;  from  whence,  not  having  been  able  to  procure 
one  nearer,  he  proposed  to  do  the  duties  of  his  living 
for  the  present,  while  he  endeavored,  with  Dr.  Yernon 
Harcourt's  (the  present  Archbishop  of  York's)  consent, 
to  negotiate  some  exchange  of  living,  and  thus  to  avoid 
the  necessity  of  building. 

Lord  Eldon  required  that  a  chancery  living  should 
only  be  exchanged  for  another  chancery  living,  and 
that  the  parties  so  exchanging  should  be  exactly  of  the 
same  age.  These  conditions  rendered  exchange  almost 
impossible ;  but  to  one  with  such  slender  means,  it  was 
worth  any  effort  to  avoid  the  ruinous  expense  of  build 
ing.  He  therefore  exerted  himself  in  every  possible 
way,  and  began  several  negotiations,  but  from  these 
reasons  they  all  failed. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Establishment  in  Yorkshire. — Habits. — Modo  of  Life. — Heading. — At 
tention  to  Children. — Power  of  abstracting  Thoughts. — Farmer's  Din 
ner. — Medical  Anecdotes. — Experiments. — Extracts  from  Diary.— 
Practical  Essays. — Metaphysical  Essays. — Hints  for  History. — Mr. 
Macaulay's  Letter. — Sir  S.  llomilly's  Visit. — Sermon  on  his  Death.— 

•  Anecdote  of  Koasted  Quaker. — Dining  out  in  the  Country. — Brother 
and  Sir  J.  Mackintosh's  return  from  India. — Madame  De  Stael's  Visit 
to  England. — Typhus  Fever. — Verses  on  Mr.  Jeffrey. 

OUR  first  establishment  at  Heslington  was  a  great 
source  of  enjoyment  to  the  younger  part  of  the  family, 
glad  to  escape  from  the  confinement  of  London ;  and 
our  happiness  contributed  not  a  little  to  reconcile  my 
father  to  the  change. 

He  now  began  to  arrange  his  mode  of  life  and  estab 
lishment.  He  bought  a  little  second-hand  carriage, 
and  a  horse,  called  Peter ;  and  the  groom  once  ex 
claiming  he  had  a  "cruel  face,"  he  went  ever  after  by 
the  name  of  Peter  the  Cruel :  in  this  little  carriage  lie 
used  to  drive  himself  and  my  mother  every  Sunday, 
summer  and  winter  (for  she  always  accompanied  him), 
to  serve  his  church  at  Foston,  and  returned  late  in  the 
evening. 

At  first  it  was  not  without  fear  that  she  intrusted 
herself  to  so  inexperienced  a  coachman;  "but  she  soon,"' 
he  said,  "raised  my  wages,  and  considered  me  an  ex 
cellent  Jehu."  The  streets  of  York  required  some  skill 
in  this  art.  My  father  once  exclaiming  to  one  of  the 
principal  tradesmen  there,  "Why,  Mr.  Brown,  your 
streets  are  the  narrowest  in  Europe ;  there  is  not  ac 
tually  room  for  two  carriages  to  pass."  "Not  room  I* 

E* 


106  MEMOIR  OF    THE  KEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

said  the  indignant  Yorkist,  "there's  plenty  of  room,  sir, 
and  above  an  inch  and  a  half  to  spare ! "  He  used  to 
dig  vigorously  an  hour  or  two  each  day  in  his  garden, 
as  he  said,  "to  avoid  sudden  death,"  for  he  was  even 
then  inclined  to  embonpoint,  and  perhaps,  as  a  young- 
man,  may  have  been  considered  somewhat  clumsy  in 
figure  (though  I  never  thought  so),  for  I  have  often 
heard  from  my  father  that  a  college  friend  used  to  say 
to  him,  "  Sydney,  your  sense,  wit,  and  clumsiness,  al 
ways  give  me  the  idea  of  an  Athenian  carter."  He 
spent  much  time  in  reading  and  composition  ;  his  activ 
ity  was  unceasing ;  I  hardly  remember  seeing  him  un 
occupied,  but  when  engaged  in  conversation.  He  never 
considered  his  education  as  finished;  he  had  always 
some  object  in  hand  to  investigate.  He  read  with  great 
rapidity.  I  think  it  was  said  of  Johnson,  "Look  at 
Johnson,  tearing  out  the  bowels  of  his  book."  It  might 
be  said  of  my  father,  that  he  was  running  off  with  their 
contents,  for  he  galloped  through  the  pages  so  rapidly, 
that  we  often  laughed  at  him  when  he  shut  up  a  thick 
quarto  as  his  morning's  work,  and  said  he  meant  he  had 
looked  at  it,  not  read  it.  "  Cross-examine  me,  then," 
said  he ;  and  we  generally  found  he  knew  all  that  was 
worth  knowing  in  it ;  though  I  do  not  think  he  had  a 
very  retentive  memory.  The  same  peculiarity  charac 
terized  his  compositions ;  when  he  had  any  subject  in 
hand,  he  was  indefatigable  in  reading,  searching,  inquir 
ing,  seeking  every  source  of  information,  and  discussing 
it  with  any  man  of  sense  or  cultivation  who  crossed  his 
path.  But  having  once  mastered  it,  he  would  sit  down, 
and  you  might  see  him  committing  his  ideas  to  paper 
with  the  same  rapidity  that  they  flowed  out  in  his  con 
versation — no  hesitation,  no  erasions,  no  stopping  to 
consider  and  round  his  periods,  no  writing  for  effect, 
but  a  pouring  out  of  the  fullness  of  his  mind  and  feel- 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  107 

ings,  for  lie  was  heart  and  soul  in  whatever  he  under 
took.  One  could  see  by  his  countenance  how  much  he 
was  interested  or  amused  as  fresh  images  came  cluster 
ing  round  his  pen ;  he  hardly  ever  altered  or  corrected 
what  he  had  written  (as  I  find  by  many  manuscripts  I 
have  of  his);  indeed,  he  was  so  impatient  of  this,  that 
he  could  hardly  bear  the  trouble  of  even  looking  over 
what  he  had  written,  but  would  not  unfrequently  throw 
thc  manuscript  down  on  the  table  as  soon  as  finished, 
and  say,  "  There,  it  is  done;  now,  Kate,  do  look  it 
over,  and  put  in  dots  to  the  i's  and  strokes  to  the  zfs"- 
and  he  would  sally  forth  to  his  morning's  walk. 

lie  used  frequently  to  lay  out  his  plans  of  study  for 
the  year.  I  find  the  following  have  accidentally  been 
preserved  in  one  of  his  commonplace  books,  and  shall 
give  them,  though  not  strictly  belonging  to  this  period : 

'Plan  of  Study  for  1820. 

"Translate  every  day  ten  lines  of  the  '  DC  Officiis,' 
and  re-translate  into  Latin,  live  chapters  of  Greek 
Testament.  Theological  studies.  Plato's  '  Apology  for 
Socrates;'  Horace's  Epodes,  Epistles,  Satires,  and  Ars 
Poetica. 

"Plan  of  Study  for  1821. 

"Write  sermons  and  reviews,  Monday,  Wednesday, 
and  Friday.  Read,  Tuesday,  Thursday,  Saturday. 
Write  ten  lines  of  Latin  on  writing  days.  Head  five 
chapters  of  Greek  Testament  on  reading  days.  For 
morning  reading,  either  Polybius,  or  Diodorus  Siculus, 
or  some  tracts  of  Xenophon  or  Plato ;  and  for  Latin, 
Catullus,  Tibullus,  and  Propertius. 

"Monday:  write,  morning;  read  Tasso,  evening. 
Tuesday  :  Latin  or  Greek,  morning ;  evening,  theology. 
Wednesday,  same  as  Monday.  Friday,  ditto.  Tliurs- 


108  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

day  and  Saturday,  same  as  Tuesday.  Read  every  day 
a  chapter  in  Greek  Testament,  and  translate  ten  lines 
of  Latin.  Good  "books  to  read :  Terrasson's  '  History 
of  Roman  Jurisprudence ;'  Bishop  of  Chester's  '  Records 
of  the  Creation.'"' 

He  was  very  fond  of  children — liked  to  have  them 
with  him  ;  indeed,  in  looking  back,  it  often  fills  me  with 
regret  to  think  of  the  many  advantages  that  ought  to 
have  been  turned  to  better  account,  in  passing  a  life 
with  such  a  man. 

He  took  a  lively  interest  in  all  our  pursuits  and  happi 
ness  (a  happiness  which,  he  often  touchmgly  said,  lie 
had  never  known  in  childhood);  he  never  lost  an  op 
portunity  of  showing  us  whatever  could  instruct  or 
amuse,  that  came  within  his  reach ;  he  loved  to  exer 
cise  our  minds ;  and  I  remember,  often  in  childhood, 
gave  my  elder  brother  and  myself  subjects  on  which  to 
write  essays  for  him.  He  encouraged  the  ceaseless 
questions  of  childhood ;  he  was  never  too  busy  to  ex 
plain  or  assist;  as  we  grew  older,  he  endeavored  to 
stimulate  us  to  exertion  by  shame  at  ignorance.  Ho, 
loved  to  discuss  with  us,  met  us  as  his  equals,  and  I 
look  back  with  wonder  at  his  patient  refutation  of  our 
crude  and  foolish  opinions. 

As  we  grew  up  we  became  his  companions  ;  we  were 
called  in  to  all  family  councils ;  his  letters  were  com 
mon  property ;  the  tenderest  mother  could  not  have 
been  more  anxious  and  careful  as  to  the  religious  ten 
dency  of  any  books  we  read,  and  often  he  has  taken 
books  out  of  my  hands  which  I  had  ignorantly  begun, 
with  strict  injunctions  to  consult  him  about  my  studies. 
He  regarded  it  as  the  greatest  of  all  evils  to  produce 
doubt  or  confusion  in  a  youthful  mind  on  such  subjects ; 
indeed  he  has  said,  in  his  sermons,  that  lie  "would  a 


MEMOIR    OF   THE   KEV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  luu 

thousand  times  prefer  that  his  child  should  die  in  the 
bloom  of  youth,  rather  than  it  should  live  to  'disbe 
lieve." 

After  his  evening  walk  he  would  sit  down  to  his 
singular  writing  establishment,  which  I  shall  describe 
hereafter,  placed  by  the  servant  always  in  the  same 
place ;  and  here,  after  looking  through  business  papers 
and  bills  with  as  much  plodding  method  as  an  attorney's 
clerk,  he  would  suddenly  push  them  all  aside,  and,  as 
if  to  refresh  his  mind,  take  up  his  pen.  His  power  of 
abstraction  was  so  great  that  he  would  begin  to  com 
pose,  with  as  much  rapidity  and  ease  as  another  man 
would  write  a  letter,  those  essays  which  are  before  the 
world,  or  some  of  those  sermons  of  which  my  mother 
lias  given  a  few  to  the  public  since  his  death ;  often 
reading  what  he  had  written,  listening  to  our  criticisms 
(as  Moliere  did  to  his  old  woman),  and  this  in  the  midst 
of  all  the  conversation  and  interruptions  of  a  family 
party,  with  talking  or  music  going  on. 

"A  clergyman  complaining  of  want  of  society  in  the 
country,  saying,  ;  They  talk  of  Tunis'  (young  cows), 
Johnson  expressed  himself  much  flattered  by  the  reply 
of  Mrs.  Thrale's  mother  :  '  Sir,  Dr.  Johnson  would  learn 
to  talk  of  runts  f  meaning  that  I  was  a  man  that  would 
make  the  most  of  my  situation,  whatever  it  was."*  This 
was  most  strikingly  the  case  with  my  father ;  he  always 
endeavored  to  see  the  bright  side  of  things,  and  to  adapt 
himself  to  the  circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed, 
however  uncongenial  to  his  former  tastes  and  habits. 
He  could  talk  of  runts  with  those  who  talked  only  of 
runts,  and  he  not  only  talked,  but  entered  so  eagerly 
into  the  subject  before  him  that  he  ended  by  generally 
finding  sources  of  interest  in  them ;  affording,  in  this 
respect,  a  striking  contrast  to  a  brother  clergyman,  who 
*  BosAvcll's  Life  of  Johnson. 


110  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

about  the  same  time  (having  been  a  popular  preacher  in 
London)  received  a  valuable  living  in  Yorkshire,  and 
came  down  to  a  good  house  and  a  more  populous  neigh 
borhood  than  my  father's.  But  alas !  he  could  not  talk 
of  runts ;  he  sighed  after  Piccadilly ;  his  face  grew  thin 
ner  and  longer  every  time  we  met ;  he  used  often  to  call, 
and  lament  over  his  hard  fate,  and  wonder  how  my  fa 
ther  could  endure  it  with  so  much  cheerfulness ;  and  I 
believe  he  would  have  died  of  green  fields  and  runts,  if 
he  had  not  succeeded  in  effecting  an  exchange,  which 
restored  him  again  to  London. 

Talking  of  runts  reminds  me  of  a  practice  my  father 
established  as  soon  as  he  was  settled  at  Foston,  of  in 
viting  some  of  the  most  respectable  farmers  in  his  neigh 
borhood  to  dine  with  him  once  a  year.  On  these  occa 
sions  he  did  not  make  it  a  mere  man's  dinner,  but  the 
ladies  of  his  family  were  always  present ;  and,  without 
lowering  his  own  dignity  or  appearing  to  descend  to  the 
level  of  his  more  humble  guests,  it  wras  interesting  to 
observe  how  he  drew  out  the  real  sense  and  knowledge 
they  possessed,  how  he  discussed  their  opinions,  and 
with  what  tact  he  gave  a  tone  of  general  interest  to  the 
conversation.  Trifling  as  this  was,  it  was  evidently  of 
great  utility :  it  gave  him  more  knowledge  of  them  and 
influence  among  them  than  he  could  otherwise  have  ob 
tained  ;  each  man  went  away  better  pleased  with  him 
self  and  less  of  a  grumbler  than  he  came ;  and,  I  suspect, 
with  a  greater  value  for  character,  which  was  the  only 
passport  to  his  table. 

My  father  employed  himself  much  in  acquiring  a 
knowledge  of  all  rural  arts  and  details  of  farming,  such 
as  baking,  brewing,  fattening  poultry,  churning,  etc.  ; 
talking  much  to  the  working  people,  whose  shrewdness 
and  blunt  sense  delighted  him.  He  always  acquired 
some  information  from  them,  often  kindly  taking  up 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  Ill 

sonic  old  woman  returning  from  market  into  his  gig  and 
learning  her  history.  He  said  he  never  found  anything 
well  done  in  a  small  household,  if  the  master  and  mis 
tress  were  ignorant  of  the  mode  in  which  it  ought  to  Ibe 
done. 

He  began,  too  on  a  small  scale  to  exercise  his  skill  in 
medicine,  doing  much  good  among  his  poor  neighbors, 
though  there  were  often  ludicrous  circumstances  con 
nected  with  his  early  medical  career.  On  one  occasion, 
wishing  to  administer  a  ball  to  Peter  the  Cruel,  the 
groom,  by  mistake,  gave  him  two  boxes  of  opium  pills 
in  his  bran  mash,  which  Peter  composedly  munched, 
boxes  and  all.  My  father,  in  dismay,  when  lie  heard 
what  had  happened,  went  to  look,  as  he  thought,  for 
the  last  time  on  his  beloved  Peter ;  but  soon  found,  to 
his  great  relief,  that  neither  boxes  nor  pills  had  produced 
any  visible  effects  on  him.  Another  time  he  found  all 
his  pigs  intoxicated,  and,  as  lie  declared,  "grunting  God 
save  the  King  about  the  sty,"  from  having  eaten  some 
fermented  grains  which  he  had  ordered  for  them.  Once 
he  administered  castor-oil  to  the  red  cow,  in  quantities 
sufficient  to  have  killed  a  regiment  of  Christians  ;  but 
the  red  cow  laughed  alike  at  his  skill  and  his  oil,  and 
went  on  her  way  rejoicing. 

He  never  sat  a  moment  after  dinner  when  alone  with 
his  family,  having  contracted  a  horror  of  it  from  the 
long  sittings  inflicted  on  him  in  early  life  by  his  father ; 
who,  dining  at  three,  used  to  sit  till  dark,  and  expect 
his  family  to  do  the  same.  My  father  rushed  into  the 
opposite  extreme ;  and  the  cloth  was  scarcely  removed 
ere  he  called  for  his  hat  and  stick,  and  sallied  forth  for 
his  evening  stroll,  in  which  we  always  accompanied 
him.  Each  cow,  and  calf,  and  horse,  and  pig,  were  in 
turn  visited,  and  fed  and  patted,  and  all  seemed  to  wel 
come  him :  lie  caved  for  their  comforts  as  he  cared  for 


112  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

the  comforts  of  every  living  being  around  him.  He 
used 'to  say,  "  I  am  all  for  cheap  luxuries,  even  for 
animals ;  now  all  animals  have  a  passion  for  scratching 
their  backbones ;  they  break  down  your  gates  and  pal 
ings  to  effect  this.  Look !  There  is  my  universal 
scratcher,  a  sharp-edged  pole,  resting  on  a  high  and  a 
low  post,  adapted  to  every  height,  from  a  horse  to  a 
lamb.  Even  the  Edinburgh  Reviewer  can  take  his 
turn ;  you  have  no  idea  how  popular  it  is ;  I  have  not 
had  a  gate  broken  since  I  put  it  up  ;  I  have  it  in  all  my 
fields." 

He  always  had  some  experiment  going  on.  At  one 
time  he  was  bent  on  inventing  a  method  of  burning  the 
fat  of  his  own  sheep,  instead  of  candles  ;  and  numerous 
were  the  little  tin  lamps,  of  various  forms  and  sizes, 
produced  ;  great  the  illuminations  and  greater  the  smells, 
the  house  being  redolent  of  mutton-fat  while  this  fancy 
lasted. 

Then  he  took  smoking  chimneys  in  hand,  and  in 
vented  patent  iron  backs,  to  throw  out  the  heat  of  the 
fire  by  contracting  the  chimney,  and  facilitate  sweeping 
them  by  the  ease  of  removal ;  and,  I  am  bound  in  grati 
tude  to  own,  with  much  success. 

Immediately  on  coming  to  Foston,  as  early  as  the 
year  1809,  he  set  on  foot  gardens  for  the  poor;  and 
subsequently,  Dutch  gardens  for  spade  cultivation.  The 
former  were,  I  believe,  among  the  first  trials  of  an  ex 
periment  which  has  been  since  so  generally  adopted,  as 
one  of  the  most  beneficial  charities  among  the  country 
population  ;  dividing  several  acres  of  the  glebe  into  six 
teenths,  and  letting  them,  at  a  low  rent,  to  the  villagers, 
to  whom  they  were  the  greatest  comfort.  It  became 
quite  a  pretty  sight  afterward  to  see  these  small  gardens 
(which  were  just  enough  to  supply  a  cottager  with  pota 
toes,  and  sometimes  enable  him  to  keep  a  pig)  filled  at 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDSET   SMITH.  113 

dawn  with  the  women  and  children  cultivating  them  be 
fore  they  went  out  to  their  day's  labor ;  and  there  was 
the  greatest  emulation  among  them  whose  garden  should 
be  most  productive  and  obtain  the  prize. 

Then  the  cheapest  diet  for  the  poor,  and  cooking  for 
the  poor,  formed  the  subjects  of  his  inquiry :  and  many 
a  hungry  laborer  was  brought  in  and  stuffed  with  rice, 
or  broth,  or  porridge,  to  test  their  relative  effects  on  the 
appetite.  In  short,  it  would  be  endless  to  enumerate 
the  variety  of  subjects  and  objects  which  the  activity 
and  energy  of  his  mind  suggested  and  found  interest  in. 

In  an  evening,  often  with  a  child  on  each  knee,  ho 
•would  invent  a  tale  for  their  amusement,  composed  of 
such  ludicrous  images  and  combinations  as  nobody  else 
would  have  thought  of,  succeeding  each  other  with  the 
greatest  rapidity;  these  were  devoured  by  them  with 
eyes  and  ears,  in  breathless  interest ;  but  at  the  most 
thrilling  moment  always  terminated  with  "and  so  they 
lived  very  happy  ever  after,"  a  kiss  on  each  fat  cheek, 


"  and  now  go  to  bed." 


The  following  arc  extracts  from  such  few  portions  of 
his  diary  as  have  been  preserved,  written  at  various 
times.  These  slight,  unfinished  fragments  are  not,  of 
course,  given  as  specimens  of  composition ;  but  they 
are,  I  think,  of  great  value,  as  indicating  the  occupation 
and  direction  of  his  thoughts,  and  the  wholesome  train 
ing  of  his  mind,  in  his  leisure  hours,  and  in  solitude,  of 
which  he  seems  to  have  felt  the  full  value  for  the  im- 
provemerit  of  his  character.  In  one  of  his  letters  to 
Jeffrey  about  this  period,  he  says:  "Living  a  great 
deal  alone  (as  I  now  do)  will,  I  believe,  correct  me  of 
my  faults,  for  a  man  can  do  without  his  own  approba 
tion  in  much  society,  but  he  must  make  great  exertions 
to  gain  it  when  he  is  alone ;  without  it,  I  am  convinced, 
solitude  is  not  to  be  endured." 


114  MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"Maxims  and  Hides  of  Life. 

"Remember  that  every  person,  however  low,  has 
Tights  and  feelings.  In  all  contentions,  let  peace  be 
rather  your  object,  than  triumph:  value  triumph  only 
as  the  means  of  peace. 

"  Kemember  that  your  children,  your  wife,  and  your 
servants,  have  rights  and  feelings ;  treat  them  as  you 
would  treat  persons  who  could  turn  again.  Apply  these 
doctrines  to  the  administration  of  justice  as  a  magis 
trate.  Hank  poisons  make  good  medicines  ;  error  and 
misfortune  may  be  turned  into  wisdom  and  improve 
ment. 

"Do  not  attempt  to  frighten  children  and  inferiors  by 
passion ;  it  does  more  harm  to  your  own  character  than 
it  does  good  to  them ;  the  same  thing  is  better  done  by 
firmness  and  persuasion. 

"If  you  desire  the  common  people  to  treat  you  as  a 
gentleman,  you  must  conduct  yourself  as  a  gentleman 
should  do  to  them. 

"When  you  meet  with  neglect,  let  it  rouse  you  to 
exertion,  instead  of  mortifying  your  pride.  Set  about 
lessening  those  defects  which  expose  you  to  neglect,  and 
improve  those  excellences  which  command  attention  and 
respect. 

"Against  general  fears,  remember  how  very  precari 
ous  life  is,  take  what  care  you  will ;  how  short  it  is,  last 


as  long  as  it  ever  does. 


"Rise  early  in  the  morning,  not  only  to  avoid  self- 
•  reproach,  but  to  make  the  most  of  the  little  life  that 
remains  ;  not  only  to  save  the  hours  lost  in  sleep,  but  to 
avoid  that  languor  which,  is  spread  over  mind  and  body 
for  the  whole  of  that  day  in  which  you  have  lain  late  in 
bed. 

"Passion  gets  less  and  less  powerful  after  every  do- 


MEMOIR   OF    THE   KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  115 

feat.     Husband  energy  for  the  real  demand  which  the 
dangers  of  life  make  upon  it. 

"  Find  fault,  when  you  must  find  fault,  in  private,  if 
possible ;  and  some  time  after  the  offense,  rather  than 
at  the  time.  The  blamed  are  less  inclined  to  resist, 
when  they  are  blamed  without  witnesses ;  both  parties 
are  calmer,  and  the  accused  party  is  struck  with  the 
forbearance  of  the  accuser,  who  has  seen  the  fault,  and 
watched  for  a  private  and  proper  time  for  mentioning  it/' 

"My  son  writes  me  word  he  is  unhappy  at  school. 
This  makes  me  unhappy;  but,  1st.  There  is  much 
unhappiness  in  human  life  :  how  can  school  be  exempt  ? 
2dly.  Boys  are  apt  to  take  a  particular  moment  of  de 
pression  for  a  general  feeling,  and  they  are  in  fact  rarely 
Unhappy  ;  at  the  moment  I  write,  perhaps  he  is  playing 
about  in  the  highest  spirits.  3dly.  When  he  comes  to 
state  his  grievance,  it  wrill  probably  have  vanished,  or  be 
so  trifling,  that  it  will  yield  to  argument  or  expostulation. 
4thly.  At  all  events,  if  it  is  a  real  evil  which  makes  him 
unhappy,  I  must  find  out  what  it  is,  and  proceed  to  act 
upon  it ;  but  I  must  wait  till  I  can,  either  in  person  or 
by  letter,  find  out  what  it  is." 


"Jan.  19th  I  passed  very  unhappily,  from  an  un 
pleasant  state  of  body  produced  by  indolence. 

"Feb.  15th.  Lost  two  hours  in  bed,  from  dawrlling 
and  doubting.  Maxims  to  make  one  get  up  :  1st.  Op 
timum  eligite,  et  consuetudo  faciet  jucundissitnum. 
2d.  I  must  get  up  at  last,  it  will  be  as  difficult  then  as 
now.  3d.  By  getting  up  I  gain  health,  knowledge, 
temper,  and  animal  spirits. 

"May  31st.  The  difficulty  of  getting  up,  and  I  par 
ley  with  the  fault ;  the  only  method  is,  to  obey  the 
rulo  instantlv,  and  without  a  moment's  reflection. 


116  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"Nov.  3d.  Lost  a  day  by  indolence  ;  the  only  meth 
od  is  to  spring  up  at  once. 

"I  am  uneasy  about  the  sort  of  answer  which  the 
editor  of  the  —  -  has  given  to  my  letter ;  but  as  I 
can  not  see  his  answer,  the  best  way  is  to  wait  till  I  can 
see  it ;  and  after  all,  it  is  of  very  little  consequence. 
Every  man  magnifies  too  much  what  belongs  to  him 
self;  nobody  does  this  more  than  I  do. 

"  Another  reason  for  benevolence  is,  that  you  forget 
your  own  joy  from  being  so  accustomed  to  it,  but  the 
joy  of  others  seems  something  new. 

"—  -  says,  'my  best  patients  are  the  poor,  for 
God  is  the  paymaster.' 

"  Death — it  must  come  some  time  or  other.  It  has 
come  to  all,  greater,  better,  wiser,  than  I. 

"I  have  lived  sixty-six  years. 

"  I  have  done  but  very  little  harm  in  the  world,  and 
I  have  brought  up  my  family. 

"  I  was  seized  with  sudden  giddiness,  so  as  to  fall, 
and  for  twenty-two  hours  was  affected  by  violent  pain. 
I  kept  my  bed  that  day,  and  was  weak  and  languid  for 
some  days  after.  Mr.  Lyddon  attributes  it  to  indiges 
tion.  If  this  is  the  way  nature  punishes  us  for  the  con 
sumption  of  indigestible  food,  I  am  sure  it  is  worth  while 
to  be  strictly  temperate ;  I  will  therefore,  in  future, 
avoid  soup  and  fish,  and  confine  myself  to  one  dish.  I 
must  not  only  attend  to  quantity,  but  quality.  I  may 
not  be  able  to  do  this — then  I  must  die  or  be  ill ;  but 
I  am  sure  it  is  the  best  wisdom  to  do  it. 

"Not  only  is  religion  calm  and  tranquil,  but  it  has 
an  extensive  atmosphere  round  it,  whose  calmness  and 
tranquillity  must  be  preserved,  if  you  wrould  avoid  mis 
representation. 

"Not  only  study  that  those  with  whom  you  live 
should  habitually  respect  you,  but  cultivate  such  man- 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  117 

ners  as  will  secure  the  respect  of  persons  with  whom 
you  occasionally  converse.  Keep  up  the  habit  of  being 
respected,  and  do  not  attempt  to  be  more  amusing  and 
agreeable  than  is  consistent  with  the  preservation  of  re 
spect. 

"I  am  come  to  the  age  of  seventy;  have  attained 
enough  reputation  to  make  me  somebody :  I  should  not 
like  a  vast  reputation,  it  would  plague  me  to  death.  I 
hope  to  care  less  for  the  outward  world. 

"Hope. 

"Don't  be  too  severe  upon  yourself  and  your  own 
]  failings ;  keep  on,  don't  faint,  be  energetic  to  the  last. 

"If  you  wisli  to  keep  mind  clear  and  body  healthy, 
abstain  from  all  fermented  liquors. 

"Fight  against  sloth,  and  do  all  you  can  to  make 
friends. 

"  If  old-age  is  even  a  state  of  suffering,  it  is  a  state 
of  superior  wisdom,  in  which  man  avoids  all  the  rash 
and  foolish  things  he  docs  in  his  youth,  and  which  make 
life  dangerous  and  painful. 

"  Death  must  be  distinguished  from  dying,  with 
which  it  is  often  confounded. 

"Reverence  and  stand  in  awe  of  yourself. 

"  How  Nature  delights  and  amuses  us  by  varying 
even  the  character  of  insects  :  the  ill-nature  of  the  wasp, 
the  sluggishness  of  the  drone,  the  volatility  of  the  butter 
fly,  the  slyness  of  the  bug. 

"Take  short  views,  hope  for  the  best,  and  trust  in 
God." 

"A  FEW  UNFINISHED  SKETCHES.* 

"  Of  the  Body. 

"  Happiness  is  not  impossible  without  health,  but  it  is 
I  of  very  difficult  attainment.     I  do  not  mean  by  health 
From  liis  "  Practical  Essays." 


118  MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

merely  an  absence  of  dangerous  complaints,  but  that 
the  body  should  be  in  perfect  tune — full  of  vigor  and 
alacrity. 

"  The  longer  I  live,  the  more  I  am  convinced  that  the 
apothecary  is  of  more  importance  than  Seneca  ;  and  that 
half  the  unhappiness  in  the  world  proceeds  from  little 
stoppages,  from  a  duct  clicked  up,  from  food  pressing  in 
the  wrong  place,  from  a  vext  duodenum,  or  an  agitated 
pylorus. 

"  The  deception,  as  practiced  upon  human  creatures, 
is  curious  and  entertaining.  My  friend  sups  late ;  he 
eats  some  strong  soup,  then  a  lobster,  then  some  tart, 
and  he  dilutes  these  esculent  varieties  with  wine.  The 
next  day  I  call  upon  him.  He  is  going  to  sell  his  house 
in  London,  and  to  retire  into  the  country.  He  is  alarmed 
for  his  eldest  daughter's  health.  His  expenses  are 
hourly  increasing,  and  nothing  but  a  timely  retreat  can 
save  him  from  ruin.  All  this  is  the  lobster :  and  when 
over-excited  nature  has  had  time  to  manage  this  testa 
ceous  encumbrance,  the  daughter  recovers,  the  finances 
are  in  good  order,  and  every  rural  idea  effectually  ex 
cluded  from  the  mind. 

"  In  the  same  manner  old  friendships  are  destroyed  by 
toasted  cheese,  and  hard  salted  meat  has  led  to  suicide. 
Unpleasant  feelings  of  the  body  produce  correspondent 
sensations  in  the  mind,  and  a  great  scene  of  wretched 
ness  is  sketched  out  by  a  morsel  of  indigestible  and  mis 
guided  food.  Of  such  infinite  consequence  to  happiness 
is  it  to  study  the  body ! 

"I  have  nothing  new  to  say  upon  the  management 
which  the  body  requires.  The  common  rules  arc  the 
best :  exercise  without  fatigue ;  generous  living  with 
out  excess ;  early  rising,  and  moderation  in  sleeping. 
These  are  the  apothegms  of  old  women ;  but  if  they 
are  not  attended  to,  happiness  becomes  so  extremely 


MEMOIll   OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  Ho 

difficult  that  very  few  persons  can  attain  to  it.  In 
this  point  of  view,  the  care  of  the  body  becomes  a 
subject  of  elevation  and  importance.  A  walk  in  the 
fields,  an  hour's  less  sleep,  may  remove  all  those  bodily 
vexations  and  disquietudes  which  are  such  formidable 
enemies  to  virtue ;  and  may  enable  the  mind  to  pursue 
its  own  resolves  without  that  constant  train  of  tempta 
tions  to  resist,  and  obstacles  to  overcome,  which  it  al 
ways  experiences  from  the  bad  organization  of  its  com 
panion.  Johnson  says,  every  man  is  a  rascal  when  he 
is  sick ;  meaning,  I  suppose,  that  he  has  no  benevolent 
dispositions  at  that  period  toward  his  fellow-creatures, 
but  that  his  notions  assume  a  character  of  greater  af 
finity  to  his  bodily  feelings,  and  that,  feeling  pain,  he 
becomes  malevolent ;  and  if  this  be  true  of  great  dis 
eases,  it  is  true  in  a  less  degree  of  the  smaller  ailments 
of  the  body. 

"Get  up  in  a  morning,  walk  before  breakfast,  pass 
four  or  five  hours  of  the  day  in  some  active  employ 
ment  ;  then,  cat  and  drink  overnight,  lie  in  bed  till 
one  or  two  o'clock,  saunter  away  the  rest  of  the  day 
in  doing  nothing! — can  any  two  human  beings  be 
more  perfectly  dissimilar  than  the  same  individual  un 
der  these  two  different  systems  of  corporeal  manage 
ment  ?  and  is  it  not  of  as  great  importance  toward 
happiness  to  pay  a  -minute  attention  to  the  body,  as 
it  is  to  study  the  wisdom  of  Chrysippus  and  Grantor  ?" 

"  Of  Occupation, 

"  A  good  stout  bodily  machine  being  provided,  we 
must  be  actively  occupied,  or  there  can  be  little  hap 
piness. 

"If  a  good  useful  occupation  be  not  provided,  it  is 
so  ungciiial  to  the  human  mind  to  do  nothing,  that 
men  occupy  themselves  perilously,  as  with  gaming ; 


120  MEMOIR  OF  THE   IIEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

QIC  frivolously,  as  with  walking  up  and  down  a  street 
at  a  watering-place,  and  looking  at  the  passers-by ;  or 
malevolently,  as  by  teazing  their  wives  and  children. 
It  is  impossible  to  support,  for  any  length  of  time,  a 
state  of  perfect  ennui  /  and  if  you  were  to  shut  a  man 
up  for  any  length  of  time  within  four  walls,  without  oc 
cupation,  he  would  go  mad.  If  idleness  do  not  produce 
vice  or  malevolence,  it  commonly  produces  melancholy. 

"A  stockbroker  or  a  farmer  have  no  leisure  for  imag 
inary  wretchedness ;  their  minds  are  usually  hurried 
away  by  the  necessity  of  noticing  external  objects,  and 
they  are  guaranteed  from  that  curse  of  idleness,  the 
eternal  disposition  to  think  of  themselves. 

"If  we  have  no  necessary  occupation,  it  becomes 
extremely  difficult  to  make  to  ourselves  occupations  as 
entirely  absorbing  as  those  which  necessity  imposes. 

"The  profession  which  a  man  makes  for  himself  is 
seldom  more  than  a  half  profession,  and  often  leaves  the 
mind  in  a  state  of  vacancy  and  inoccupation.  We  must 
lash  ourselves  up  however,  as  well  as  we  can,  to  a  notion 
of  its  great  importance ;  and  as  the  dispensing  power  is 
in  our  own  hands,  we  must  be  very  jealous  of  remission 
and  of  idleness. 

"It  may  seem  absurd  that  a  gentleman  who  does 
not  live  by  the  profits  of  farming  should  rise  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning  to  look  after  his  farm  ;  or,  if 
botany  be  his  object,  that  he  should  voyage  to  Iceland 
in  pursuit  of  it.  He  is  the  happier  however  for  his 
eagerness ;  his  mind  is  more  fully  employed,  and  lie  is 
much  more  effectually  guaranteed  from  all  the  miseries 
of  ennui. 

"It  is  asked,  if  the  object  can  be  of  such  great  im 
portance.  Perhaps  not ;  but  the  pursuit  is.  The  fox, 
when  caught,  is  worth  nothing:  he  is  followed  for  the 
pleasure  of  the  following. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  121 

"  What  is  a  man  to  do  with  his  life  who  has  nothing 
which  he  must  do  ?  It  is  admitted  he  must  find  some 
employment,  but  does  it  signify  what  that  employment 
is  ?  Is  he  employed  as  much  for  his  own  happiness  in 
cultivating  a  flower-garden  as  in  philosophy,  literature, 
or  politics  ?  This  must  depend  upon  the  individual 
himself,  and  the  circumstances  in  which  he  is  placed. 
As  far  as  the  mere  occupation  or  exclusion  of  ennui 
goes,  this  can  be  settled  only  by  the  feelings  of  the  per 
son  employed  ;  and  if  the  attention  be  equally  absorbed, 
in  this  point  of  view  one  occupation  is  as  good  as  anoth 
er  ;  but  a  man  who  is  conscious  he  was  capable  of  doing 
great  things,  and  has  occupied  himself  with  trifles  be 
neath  the  level  of  his  understanding,  is  apt  to  feel  envy 
at  the  lot  of  those  who  have  excelled  him,  and  remorse 
at  the  misapplication  of  his  own  powers ;  he  has  not 
added  to  the  pleasures  of  occupation  the  pleasures  of 
benevolence,  and  so  has  not  made  his  occupation  as 
agreeable  as  he  might  have  done,  and  he  lias  probably 
not  gained  as  much  fame  and  wealth  as  he  might  have 
done  if  his  pursuits  had  been  of  a  higher  nature.  For 
these  reasons  it  seems  right  that  a  man  should  attend  to 
the  highest  pursuits  in  which  he  has  any  fair  chance  of 
excelling ;  he  is  as  much  occupied,  gains  more  of  what 
is  worth  gaining,  and  excludes  remorse  more  effectually, 
even  if  he  fail,  because  he  is  conscious  of  having  made 
the  effort. 

"  When  a  very  clever  man,  or  a  very  great  man,  takes 
to  cultivating  turnips  and  retiring,  it  is  generally  an  im 
posture.  The  moment  men  cease  to  talk  of  their  turnips, 
they  are  wretched  and  full  of  self-reproach.  Let  every 
\  man  be  occupied,  and  occupied  in  the  highest  employ- 
"|  ment  of  which  his  nature  is  capable,  and  die  with  the 
consciousness  that  he  IMS  done  his  best  f 


122  MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  Of  Friendship. 

"  Life  is  to  be  fortified  by  many  friendships.  To  love, 
and  to  be  loved,  is  the  greatest  happiness  of  existence. 
If  I  lived  under  the  burning  sun  of  the  equator,  it  would 
be  a  pleasure  to  me  to  think  that  there  were  many  human 
beings  on  the  other  side  of  the  world  who  regarded  and 
respected  me  ;  I  could  and  would  not  live  if  I  were  alone 
upon  the  earth,  and  cut  off  from  the  remembrance  of  my 
fellow-creatures.  It  is  not  that  a  man  has  occasion  often 
to  fall  back  upon  the  kindness  of  his  friends  ;  perhaps  he 
may  never  experience  the  necessity  of  doing  so  ;  but  w,e 
are  governed  by  our  imaginations,  and  they  stand  there 
as  a  solid  and  impregnable  bulwark  against  all  the  evils 
of  life. 

"Friendships  should  be  formed  with  persons  of  all 
ages  and  conditions,  and  with  both  sexes.  I  have  a 
friend  who  is  a  bookseller,  to  whom  I  have  been  very 
civil,  and  who  would  do  any  thing  to  serve  me ;  and  I 
have  two  or  three  small  friendships  among  persons  in 
much  humbler  walks  of  life,  who,  I  verily  believe,  would 
do  me  a  considerable  kindness  according  to  their  means. 
It  is  a  great  happiness  to  form  a  sincere  friendship  with 
a  woman ;  but  a  friendship  among  persons  of  different 
sexes  rarely  or  ever  takes  place  in  this  country.  The 
-austerity  of  our  manners  hardly  admits  of  such  a  con 
nection — compatible  with  the  most  perfect  innocence, 
and  a  source  of  the  highest  possible  delight  to  those 
who  are  fortunate  enough  to  form  it. 

"  Very  few  friends  will  bear  to  be  told  of  their  faults  ; 
and  if  done  at  all,  it  must  be  done  with  infinite  manage 
ment  and  delicacy  ;  for  if  you  indulge  often  in  this  prac 
tice,  men  think  you  hate,  and  avoid  you.  If  the  evil  is 
not  very  alarming,  it  is  better  indeed  to  let  it  alone,  and 
not  to  turn  friendship  into  a  system  of  lawful  and  un- 


MEMOIR   OF   THE    REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  li>3 

punishable  impertinence.  I  am  for  frank  explanations 
with  friends  in  cases  of  affronts.  They  sometimes  save 
a  perishing  friendship,  and  even  place  it  on  a  firmer  basis 
than  at  first ;  but  secret  discontent  must  always  end 
badly." 

"Of  Cheerfulness, 

"  Cheerfulness  and  good  spirits  depend  in  a  great  de 
gree  upon  bodily  causes,  but  much  may  be  done  for  the 
promotion  of  this  turn  of  mind.  Persons  subject  to  low 
spirits  should  make  the  rooms  in  which  they  live  as 
cheerful  as  possible ;  taking  care  that  the  paper  with 
which  the  wall  is  covered  should  be  of  a  brilliant,  lively 
color,  hanging  up  pictures  or  prints,  and  covering  the 
'  chimney-piece  with  beautiful  china.  A  bay-window 
-  looking  upon  pleasant  objects,  and,  above  all,  a  large 
fire  whenever  the  weather  will  permit,  are  favorable  to 
good  spirits,  and  the  tables  near  should  be  strewed  with 
books  and  pamphlets.  To  this  must  be  added  as  much 
eating  and  drinking  as  is  consistent  with  health ;  and 
some  manual  employment  for  men — as  gardening,  a 
carpenter's  shop,  the  turning-lathe,  etc.  Women  have 
always  manual  employment  enough,  and  it  is  a  great 
source  of  cheerfulness.  Fresh  air,  exercise,  occupation, 
society,  and  traveling  are  powerful  remedies. 

"  Melancholy  commonly  flics  to  the  future  for  its  ali 
ment,  and  must  be  encountered  in  this  sort  of  artifice, 
by  diminishing  the  range  of  our  views.  I  have  a  large 
family  coming  on,  my  income  is  diminishing,  and  I  shall 
fall  into  pecuniary  difficulties.  Well !  but  you  are  not 
now  in  pecuniary  difficulties.  Your  eldest  child  is  only 
seven  years  old ;  it  must  be  two  or  three  years  before 
your  family  make  any  additional  demands  upon  your 
purse.  Wait  till  the  time  comes.  Much  may  happen 
in  the  interval  to  better  your  situation  ;  and  if  nothino- 


124  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

does  happen,  at  least  enjoy  the  two  or  three  years  of 
ease  and  uninterruption  which  are  before  you.  You  are 
uneasy  about  your  eldest  son  in  India;, but  it  is  now 
June,  and  at  the  earliest  the  fleet  will  not  come  in  till 
September;  it  may  bring  accounts  of  his  health  and 
prosperity,  but  at  all  events  there  are  eight  or  nine 
weeks  before  you  can  hear  news.  Why  are  they  to  be 
spent  as  if  you  had  heard  the  worst  ?  The  habit  of  takr 
ing  very  short  views  of  human  life  may  be  acquired  by 
degrees,  and  a  great  sum  of  happiness  is  gained  by  it. 
It  becomes  as  customary  at  last  to  view  things  on  the 
good  side  of  the  question  as  it  was  before  to  despond, 
and  to  extract  misery  from  every  passing  event. 

"  A  firm  confidence  in  an  overruling  Providence — a 
remembrance  of  the  shortness  of  human  life,  that  it  will 
soon  be  over  and  finished — that  we  scarcely  know,  un 
less  we  could  trace  the  remote  consequences  of  every 
eyent,  what  would  be  good  and  what  an  evil ;  these  are 
very  important  topics  in  that  melancholy  which  proceeds 
from  grief. 

4 '  It  is  wise  to  state  to  friends  that  our  spirits  are  low, 
to  state  the  cause  of  the  depression,  and  to  hear  all  that 
argument  or  ridicule  can  suggest  for  the  cure.  Melan 
choly  is  always  the  worse  for  concealment,  and  many 
causes  of  depression  are  so  frivolous,  that  we  arc 
shamed  out  of  them  by  the  mere  statement  of  their  ex 
istence." 

Scattered  among  his  papers  are  a  few  fragments  on 
metaphysical  subjects,  which  always  interested  him. 

"  J3enevolence. 

"A  child  is  born  with  the  power  of  feeling  bodily 
pleasure  and  pain.  The  milk  he  receives  from  his  nurse 
delights  him.  The  appearance  of  the  nurse  is  always 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  125 

connected  with  that  pleasure,  and,  by  the  laws  of  asso 
ciation,  because  he  loves  the  milk  he  at  last  comes  to 
love  the  nurse ;  that  is,  her  presence  excites  in  him  the 
passion  of  joy.  In  the  same  manner,  if  his  nurse,  in 
stead  of  suckling  him,  had  rubbed  his  mouth  with  worm 
wood,  the  pain  of  the  wormwood  would  be  united  with 
the  appearance  of  the  nurse ;  and  because  the  taste  of 
the  wormwood  excited  in  him  the  passion  of  sorrow,  the 
appearance  of  the  nurse  would  at  last  do  the  same.  In 
this  way  we  begin  to  connect  our  fellow-creatures  with 
our  pleasures  and  pains. 

"But  whence  comes  it  that  a  child  travels  from  joy 
to  benevolence,  and  wishes  to  do  good  to  the  person 
who  excites  in  him  pleasurable  sensations?  Why  is 
he  not  benevolent  toward  the  pap-boat,  or  the  nurse's 
gown,  or  any  other  inanimate  object  which  his  eye  con 
nects  as  frequently  with  his  animal  pleasures  as  the 
image  of  his  nurse  ?  The  progress  from  joy  to  benevo 
lence  is,  I  believe,  entirely  the  result  of  experience,  and 
the  latter  is  a  passion  of  much  later  growth  than  the 
other.  As  a  child  grows  older,  he  perceives  that  the 
person  who  ministers  to  his  joy  and  sorrow  has  similar 
feelings  with  himself,  and  that  it  becomes  his  interest  to 
attend  to  them.  If  he  scratches,  and  kicks,  and  cries, 
and  knocks  down  glasses  and  tea-cups,  he  is  shaken  or 
scolded,  or  sugar  is  refused ;  or  he  is  put  in  the  corner, 
or  whipped.  If  he  pleases  his  superior,  come  cakes, 
plums,  toys,  and  amusing  games. 

"In  the  same  manner,  at  school,  he  is  every  day 
receiving  lessons  of  the  evils  of  malevolence  and  the 

o 

advantages  of  benevolence.  Kicks,  cuffs,  privations, 
solitude,  deter  him  on  one  hand ;  cheerful  society,  pro 
tection,  community  of  joys,  allure  him  on  the  other.  In 
this  way  he  learns  the  important  lesson  of  doing  good 
in  order  to  promote  his  own  good ;  and  having  loved 


12G  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

the  passion  for  its  utility,  lie  loves  it  at  last  for  itself. 
In  after-life,  the  poet,  the  orator,  the  moralist,  and  the 
preacher,  praise  and  purify  this  fine  passion,  give  it 
strength,  which  conceals  its  origin,  and  makes  it  appeal- 
primary  and  original. 

"In  order  to  make  this  more  clear,  let  us  suppose 
that  a  child  was  treated,  to  a  late  period,  with  the  same 
uniform  indulgence,  however  numerous  his  faults,  and 
however  untoward  his  disposition;  that  nurse,  father, 
mother,  school-fellow,  and  schoolmaster,  all  studied  his 
humors  and  ministered  to  his  wants,  without  exacting 
from  him  in  return  the  slightest  attention  to  their  own 
feelings.  What  motive  could  such  a  child  have  for  be 
nevolence  ?  How  would  he  learn  to  "become  "benevolent  ? 
Why  should  he  cultivate  such  passive  human  beings, 
more  than  the  spoon,  or  the  silver  mug,  which,  tossed 
and  tumbled  about  by  his  caprice  to-day,  are  sure  to 
appear  at  the  dinner  of  to-morrow  ? 

"In  fact,  such  a  blind  submission  to  the  will  of  any 
child  would  infallibly  make  him  a  tyrant,  and  extin 
guish  in  his  mind  every  spark  of  benevolence :  but  if 
an  exemption  from  the  necessity  of  attending  to  the 
feelings  of  our  fellow-creatures,  destroys  benevolence, 
the  necessity  of  doing  so  may  be  presumed  to  teach  it. 
Where  one  fact,  admitted  to  be  true,  will  explain  other 
facts  equally  admitted  to  be  true,  there  is  no  occasion 
to  suppose  other  facts  which  are  doubtful,  in  order  to 
make  a  new  series  of  causes  and  consequences.  That 
children  are  born  capable  of  feeling  bodily  pain  and 
pleasure,  is  not  disputed ;  that  they  soon  learn  to  be 
benevolent  toward,  or  to  love  their  fellow-creatures,  is 
an  equally  admitted  fact.  If  one  of  these  facts  can  be 
shown  to  be  the  cause  of  the  other,  there  is  no  occasion 
to  have  recourse  to  a  principle  of  benevolence  as  an 
original  principle  of  our  nature ;  but  this,  though  a  curi- 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   REV.    SYDXEY    SMITH.  127 

ous,  is  not  a  very  important  question.  Whether  innate,  - 
or  early  learnt,  the  most  pure  and  disinterested  benevo 
lence  exists  in  human  nature.  Howard  visited  prisons 
and  lazarettos,  and  sacrificed  his  life  for  his  fellow-creat 
ures,  let  the  metaphysical  origin  of  benevolence  be  what 
it  may. 

"  The  passion  of  benevolence,  thus  excited  in  our  na 
ture,  receives  the  name  of  gratitude,  when  we  desire  to 
do  good  to  those  who  have  done  good  to  us.  From  ap 
parent  gratitude,  is  to  be  deducted  the  hope  of  future 
favor  from  the  object  of  our  gratitude,  and  the  dread  of 
infamy  for  being  ungrateful.  The  pure  passion  may  be 
explained  from  the  united  effects  of  association  and  edu 
cation.  Sexual  love  is  that  benevolence  to  persons  of 
the  opposite  sex,  which  proceeds  from  the  beauty  of 
their  countenance  or  their  form. 

"Paternal  love  is  the  benevolence  which  a  father  feels 
loward  his  child.  This  passion,  like  all  others  which 
are  of  use  to  mankind,  is  very  much  increased  by  edu 
cation  and  general  opinion,  by  reason  and  reflection,  and 
by  compassion,  by  habit,  and  association.  I  see  no 
occasion  for  supposing  the  existence  of  any  original 
principle  of  paternal  love.  The  analogy  from  animals 
is  entirely  against  it.  Love,  when  applied  to  persons 
of  the  same  sex,  like  affection,  kindness,  are  all  modi 
fications  of  the  same  passions  of  joy,  or  benevolence ; 
an  agreeable,  charming,  or  delightful  person  excites 
these  passions  in  us,  in  different  degrees,  gives  us  feel 
ings  of  joy,  or  makes  us  desirous  of  doing  him  some 
good.  When  benevolence  excites  us  to  give,  it  is  called 
generosity.  Hope  is  the  belief,  more  or  less  strong, 
that  joy  will  come ;  desire  is  the  wish  it  may  come. 
There  is  no  word  to  designate  the  remembrance  of  joys 
past."' 


128  MEMOIK    OF   THE   IIEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  Of  the  Mind.     (A  Fragment.} 

"  The  mind  is  inhabited  by  ideas,  by  passions,  and 
by  desires.  Passions  are  strong  feelings  or  affections 
of  the  mind,  not  leading  immediately  to  action.  De 
sires  are  strong  feelings  of  the  mind,  accompanied  by 
a  wish  to  act. 

"In  revenge,  I  can  perceive  that  my  mind  is  power 
fully  affected,  and  I  have  a  wish  to  act,  and  to  give 
pain  to  some  person — this  is  a  desire.  When  the 
possession  of  sudden  wealth  is  announced  to  me,  I 
feel  transported  with  joy,  but  I  have  no  immediate  de 
sire  to  act — here  I  only  recognize  the  affection  of  my 
mind. 

"  In  avarice,  there  is  the  feeling  and  the  wish  to  act 
— this  is  a  desire.  In  grief  there  is  only  the  affection  or 
perturbation  of  the  mind — this  is  a  passion.  Every  de 
sire  is  a  passion :  every  passion  is  not  a  desire.  Emo 
tion  is  another  name  for  passion. 

"  The  mind  is  of  course  the  seat  of  all  pain  and  pleas 
ure.  The  pain  of  the  gout  is  not  in  my  toe,  but  in  my 
mind,  and  I  refer  it  to  the  toe  as  the  cause.  If  this  were 
otherwise,  I  should  have  ten  minds  instead  of  one,  and 
as  many  on  my  hands. 

"The  pains  and  pleasures  of  the  body  ought  to  be 
classed  among  the  passions.  They  are  passions  to  all 
intents  and  purposes.  The  pains  of  the  body  have  all 
some  affinity  to  each  other,  and  in  consequence  of  that 
affinity  have  received  the  common  name  of  pain.  They 
are  not  degrees  of  the  same  feeling,  but  are  different 
feelings,  though  with  some  general  resemblance.  It 
is  an  abuse  of  terms  to  call  the  pain  excited  by  gout, 
by  a  cut,  by  a  contusion,  and  by  the  stomach-ache,  de 
grees  of  the  same  feeling.  In  the  same  manner,  the 
pleasure  arising  from  sweetness,  smoothness,  or  from 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  129 

savory  tastes,  appear  to  be  distinct  feelings,  with  some 
common  relation  between  them,  and  therefore  denomin 
ated  pleasures. 

"What  is  true  of  pain  and  of  pleasure  referred  to  the 
body,  and  in  popular  estimation  supposed  to  exist  in 
the  body,  is  true  also  of  the  pains  and  pleasures  of  the 
mind. 

"  Grief,  hatred,  and  revenge,  are  not  degrees  of  the 
same  painful  feeling,  but  distinct  feelings.  So  are  hope, 
joy,  and  benevolence;  but  all  the  agreeable  passions 
have  some  resemblance  to  each  other — so  have  all  the 
disagreeable  passions." 

I  find  among  his  papers  various  hints  for  history,  such 
as  the  following,  which  are  many  of  them  very  charac 
teristic  : 

"In  1758,  the  Chevalier  Barras  was  burnt  to  death 
at  Amiens  for  singing  a  blasphemous  song.  Thirty- 
five  years  afterward  the  Christian  religion,  was  abol 
ished  all  over  France,  and  the  church  property  confis 
cated. 

"Blackstone  says  that  for  the  Bull  Uhigenitus  alone 
fifty-four  thousand  lettres  de  cachet  were  issued.  Sev 
enty  thousand  persons  executed  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.  (See  BRODIE,  vol.  i.) 

"In  1782,  Louis  XVI.,  exercising  the  right  of  is 
suing  lettres  de  cachet,  and  in  possession  of  full  and 
unrestrained  power ;  ten  years  after,  his  head  was  cut 
off. 

"In  1770,  the  English  Legislature  taxed  the  Ameri 
can  colonies,  and  made  laws  for  them ;  in  twelve  years 
afterward  the  colonies  were  declared  an  independent 
State. 

"In  1797,  Ireland  petitioned  the  English  Parlia 
ment  for  some  small  indulgence  to  their  commerce ; 

F* 


130  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

the  petition  was  unanimously  ignored :  in  eight  years 
afterward,  Ireland  was  unanimously  declared  by  the 
same  Parliament  to  be  a  separate  and  independent 
kingdom. 

"In  America  there  is  no  waste  of  public  money; 
all  public  matters  are  conducted  with  exemplary  fru 
gality.  On  days  of  ceremony,  two  constables  walk  be 
fore  the  President,  and  he  sits  down  to  a  joint  of  meat 
and  a  pudding  provided  at  the  expense  of  twenty-two 
republics. 

"  The  religious  mistakes  of  mankind  have  been,  that 
there  are  spirits  mingling  with  mankind,  hence  demons, 
witchcraft;  that  God  governs  the  world  by  present  judg 
ments,  hence  ordeals  /  that  there  is  a  connection  between 
the  fate  of  particular  men  and  the  heavenly  bodies  at  the 
time  of  their  birth,  hence  astrology  /  that  God  is  to  be 
worshiped  by  the  misery  and  privations  of  the  worship 
ers,  hence  monasteries  and  flagellations. 

"Account  of  Taxes  from  William  the  Conqueror. 


106G  £200,000 

126G  150,000 

136G  130,000 

14GG  ..          .  100,000 


15GG  £1,500,000 

1GGG  1,800,000 

17GG  17,000,000 


Four  years  after  the   Scotch  Union,  Lord  F 


moved  its  repeal  in  the  House  of  Lords,  54  against  54 ; 
four  proxies  carried  it  against  the  motion. 

"  Fleury  became  minister  at  seventy-three  years  of 
age. 

"  Galileo  was  made  to  promise,  on  his  knees,  never 
to  teach  again  the  motion  of  the  Earth  and  the  Sun  ;  as 
a  part  of  his  punishment,  he  was  directed  to  write  every 
week  the- seven  Penitential  Psalms. 

"  The  infamous  Judge  Jeffreys  would  not  give  up  his 
Protestantism,  and  lost  the  favor  of  James  II. 

"At  the  Revolution,  the  debt  was  a  million,  the  rev- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  131 

enue  two,  i.e.  we  owed  half  a  year's  income — at  present 
about  sixteen  years'  income. 

"Brahmins  may  eat  beef,  if  killed  for  sacrifice — and 
there  are  sacrifices  every  day. 

"  The  Excise  and  Post-office  began  under  the  Com 
monwealth.  Court  of  Wards  abolished  in  the  Common 
wealth. 

"  Colbert  never  taxed  imports  as  high  as  ten  per  cent. 
ad  valorem  ;  he  had  no  prohibition. 

"The  Scotch  members  used  to  receive  ten  guineas 
per  week,  secret  service  money. 

"  Sir  John  Trevor,  Speaker  of  the  Lower  House,  was 
convicted  of  receiving  a  bribe  of  a  thousand  pounds  from 
the  City  of  London  between  1700  and  1716." 

Among  his  manuscripts  is  a  sketch  he  wrote  at  a  later 
period,  giving  an  account  of  English  misrule  of  Ireland 
from  the  earliest  period  of  our  possession  up  to  the  pres 
ent  day,  compiled  from  the  best  existing  documents,  and 
forming  so  fearful  a  picture  that  he  hesitated  to  give  it 
to  the  world  when  done.  After  his  death,  my  mother, 
thinking  the  time  perhaps  come  when  it  might  be  pub 
lished  without  injury,  referred  to  what  she  justly  felt 
was  one  of  the  highest  historical  authorities  of  our  day, 
and  received  from  Mr.  Macaulay  the  following  answer : 

"1847. 

"DEAR  MRS.   SYDNEY  SMITH, 

"I  am  truly  grateful  to  you  for  suffering  me  to  see 
the  sketch  of  Irish  history,  drawn  up  by  my  admirable 
and  excellent  friend.  1  perfectly  understand  the  gener 
ous  feeling  with  which  it  was  written,  and  I  also  think 
that  I  see  why  it  was  never  published.  While  the  Cath 
olic  disabilities  lasted,  he  whom  we  regret  did  all  that  he 
could  to  awaken  the  conscience  of  the  oppressors  and  to 


132  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

find  excuses  for  the  faults  of  the  oppressed.  When 
these  disabilities  had  been  removed,  and  when  design 
ing  men  still  attempted  to  inflame  the  Irish  against 
England,  by  repeating  tales  of  grievances  which  had 
passed  away,  he  felt  that  this  work  would  no  longer 
do  any  good,  and  that  it  might  be  used  by  demagogues 
in  such  a  way  as  to  do  positive  harm.  You  will  see, 
from  what  I  have  said,  that  though  I  think  this  piece 
honorable  to  his  memory,  I  do  not  wish  to  see  it  pub 
lished,  nor  do  I  think  that,  though  it  would  raise  the 
reputation  of  almost  any  other  writer  of  our  time,  it 
would  raise  his ;  in  truth,  nothing  that  is  not  of  very 
rare  and  striking  merit  ought  now  to  be  given  to  the 
world  under  his  name.  He  is  universally  admitted  to 
have  been  a  great  reasoner,  and  the  greatest  master  of 
ridicule  that  has  appeared  among  us  since  Swift.*  Many 
things,  therefore,  which,  if  they  came  from  an  inferior 
author,  would  be  read  with  pleasure,  will  produce  disap 
pointment  if  published  as  works  of  Mr.  Sydney  Smith. 
I  return  the  papers  with  most  sincere  thanks.  Believe 
me  ever,  dear  Mrs.  Sydney  Smith,  yours  very  truly, 

"  T.  B.  MACAULAY." 

My  father  had  not  long  been  established  in  his  house 

*  I  find  my  father  here,  and  indeed  in  almost  every  sketch  of  him, 
compared  to  Swift  in  the  character  of  his  Avritings.  It  is  for  others  to 
decide  upon  the  justness  of  the  comparison  ;  but.  there  is  one  difference 
I  ought,  and  I  am  proud  to  point  out,  that  there  is  not  a  single  line  in 
them  that  might  not  be  placed  before  the  purity  of  youth,  or  that  is  un 
fit  for  the  eye  of  a  woman  ;  that  he  has  exercised  his  powers  of  wit  and 
sarcasm  to  the  utmost,  without  ever  sullying  his  pages  with  impurities, 
or  degrading  his  talents  and  profession  by  irreligion  ;  and  this,  I  believe, 
can  in  very  few  instances  be  asserted  of  any  other  eminently  humorous 
writer,  either  French  or  English,  who  have  used  such  powers  to  any 
great  extent.  Lord  John  liussell,  in  writing  of  my  father,  says  on  this 
subject:  "Too  much  indulgence  has  been  shown  to  the  extravagance, 
dishonesty,  and  domestic  infidelity  of  men  of  wit,  as  if  the  'light  that 
led  astray  was  light  from  heaven.'  It  is  not  light  from  heaven,  but 
flashes  from  a  volcano  which  has  its  .seat  in  boll." 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  KEY.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  m 

nt  Hcslington  before  several  of  his  old  friends  found  him 
out ;  among*  the  first  of  these  were  Mr.  Horner,  Mr. 
Murray,  and  Mr.  Adams.  In  August  Mr.  Abercrombie 

and  his  family  spent  a  few  days  with  him,  which  gave 
him  much  pleasure ;  and  he  had  also  a  visit  from  Lord 
Webb  Seymour,  one  of  the  friends  with  whom  he  had 
lived  most  intimately  at  Edinburgh,  and  whose  early 
death  was  a  source  of  deep  regret  to  him. 

He  made  the  resolution,  when  he  settled  in.  the  coun 
try,  never  to  shoot ;  "  first,"  he  says,  "  because  I  found, 
on  trying  at  Lord  Grey's,  that  the  birds  seemed  to  con 
sider  the  muzzle  of  my  gun  as  their  safest  position  ;  sec 
ondly,  because  I  never  could  help  shutting  my  eyes 
when  I  fired  my  gun,  so  was  not  likely  to  improve ; 
and  thirdly,  because,  if  you  do  shoot,  the  squire  and 
the  poacher  both  consider  you  as  their  natural  enemy, 
and  I  thought  it  more  clerical  to  be  at  peace  with  both." 

In  1810  my  father  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  his 
old  and  valued  friend,  Sir  Samuel  Eomilly,  and  his  fam 
ily  ;  and  so  deep  was  his  veneration  for  the  unbending 
virtue  of  this  great  man,  that  it  was  one  not  easily  for 
gotten.  No  two  men  were  ever  more  unlike,  or  pursued 
the  same  ends  by  such  different  paths ;  yet  they  had 
many  feelings  in  common,  and  a  total  absence,  of  all 
those  littlenesses  which  sometimes  obscure  and  alienate 
even  great  men.  I  remember  Sir  Samuel  w^ent  with  my 
father  to  see  Castle  Howard,  at  which  he  gazed  with 
great  admiration,  and  after  a  long  pause,  standing  on 
the  steps  of  the  portico  and  looking  toward  the  mauso 
leum  and  at  the  lovely  landscape  around,  he  exclaimed, 
spreading  out  his  arms,  "These  are  indeed  things  that 
must  make  death  terrible!" 

Some  years  after,  my  father  introduced  the  following 
passage,  on  the  recent  death  of  Sir  Samuel  Horn  illy, 
into  a  sermon  on  the  subject  of  Meditation  on  Death, 


134  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

and  as  it  lias  not  been  published,  I  shall  insert  it  here, 
as  a  proof  of  his  feelings  toward  that  eminent  man : 

"  And  let  me  ask  you,  my  brethren,  we  who  see  the 
good  and  great  daily  perishing  before  our  eyes,  what 
comfort  have  we  but  this  hope  in  Christ  that  we  shall 
meet  again  ?  Eemember  the  eminent  men  who,  within 
the  few  years  last  past,  have  paid  the  great  debt  of  na 
ture.  The  earth  stripped  of  its  moral  grandeur,  sunk 
in  its  spiritual  pride.  The  melancholy  wreck  of  talents 
and  of  wisdom  gone,  my  brethren,  when,  we  feel  how 
dear,  how  valuable  they  were  to  us,  when  we  would 
have  asked  of  God  on  our  bended  knees  their  preser 
vation  and  their  life.  Can  we  live  with  all  that  is  ex 
cellent  in  human  nature,  can  we  study  it,  can  we  con 
template  it,  and  then  lose  it  and  never  hope  to  see  it 


again  ? 


"  Can  we  say  of  any  human  being,  as  we  may  say 
of  that  great  man  who  was  torn  from  us  in  the  begin 
ning  of  this  winter,  that  he  acted  with  vast  capacity 
upon  all  the  great  calamities  of  life ;  that  he  came  with 
unblemished  purity  to  restrain  iniquity  ;  that,  condemn 
ing  injustice,  he  was  just ;  that,  restraining  corruption, 
he  was  pure  ;  that  those  who  were  provoked  to  look  into 
the  life  of  a  great  statesman,  found  him  a  good  man 
also,  and  acknowledged  he  was  sincere  even  when  they 
did  not  believe  he  was  right  ?  Can  we  say  of  such  a 
man,  with  all  the  career  of  worldly  ambition  before  him, 
that  he  was  the  friend  of  the  wretched  and  the  poor  ; 
that  in  the  midst  of  vast  occupation  he  remembered  the 
debtor's  cell,  the  prisoner's  dungeon,  the  last  hour  of 
the  law's  victim  ;  that  he  meditated  day  and  night  on 
wretchedness,  weakness,  and  want  ?  Can  we  say  all 
this  of  any  human  being,  and  then  have  him  no  more 
in  remembrance  ?  When  you  '  die  daily, '  my  brethren  ; 


MEMOill   OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  105 

when  you  remember  my  text,  paint  to  yourselves  the 
gathering  together  again  of  the  good  and  the  just. 

"Remember  that  God  is  to  be  worshiped,  that  death 
is  to  be  met,  by  such  a  life  as  this ;  remember,  in  the 
last  hour,  that  rank,  that  birth,  that  wealth,  that  all 
earthly  things  will  vanish  away,  that  you  will  then 
think  only  of  the  wretchedness  you  have  lessened  arid 
the  good  you  have  done." 

I  see,  by  letters  in  my  possession,  that  on  the  pub 
lication  of  Sir  Samuel's  Life  by  his  sons,  my  father's 
letter  of  warm  admiration  was  the  first  received  by  the 
family ;  and  the  terms  in  which  they  speak  of  the  Aralue 
of  my  father's  praise  is  highly  gratifying  to  those  who 
love  his  memory. 

My  father  had  by  this  time  made  a  considerable  ac 
quaintance  in  and  round  York.  Dining  out  on  one  oc 
casion,  he  happened  to  meet  Mr.  —  — ,  whom  he  always 
met  with  pleasure,  as  he  was  a  man  of  sense,  simplicity, 
and  learning ;  and  with  such  a  total  absence,  not  only 
of  humor  in  himself,  but  in  his  perception  of  it  in  others, 
as  made  him  an  amusing  subject  of  speculation  to  my 
father. 

The  conversation  at  dinner  took  a  liberal  turn.  My 
father,  in  the  full  career  of  his  spirits,  happened  to  say, 
"Though  he  was  not  generally  considered  an  illiberal 
man,  yet  he  must  confess  he  had  one  little  weakness, 
one  secret  wish — he  should  like  to  roast  a  Quaker" 

"Good  heavens,  Mr.  Smith!"  said  Mr.  -  — ,  full  of 
horror,  "roast  a  Quaker?"  "Yes,  sir"  (with  the  great 
est  gravity),  "roast  a  Quaker!"  "But  do  you  con 
sider,  Mr.  Smith,  the  torture?"  "Yes,  sir,"  said  my 
father,  "I  have  considered  every  thing;  it  may  be 
wrong,  as  you  say :  the  Quaker  would  undoubtedly 


ISO  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

suffer  acutely,  but  every  one  has  his  tastes  —  mine 
would  Ibc  to  roast  a  Quaker :  one  would  satisfy  me, 
only  one ;  but  it  is  one  of  those  peculiarities  I  have 
striven  against  in  vain,  and  I  hope  you  will  pardon  my 
weakness." 

Mr. 's  honest  simplicity  could  stand  this  no 

longer,  and  he  seemed  hardly  able  to  sit  at  table  with 
him.  The  whole  company  were  in  roars  of  laughter  at 
the  scene  ;  but  neither  this,  nor  the  mirth  and  mischief 
sparkling  in  my  father's  eye,  enlightened  him  in  the 
least,  for  a  joke  was  a  thing  of  which  he  had  no  concep 
tion.  At  last  my  father,  seeing  that  he  was  giving  real 
pain,  said,  "  Come,  come,  Mr.  —  — ,  since  you  think  this 
so  very  illiberal,  I  must  be  wrong ;  and  will  give  up  my 
roasted  Quaker  rather  than  your  esteem ;  let  us  drink 
wine  together."  Peace  was  made,  but  I  believe  neither 
time  nor  explanation  would  have  ever  made  him  com 
prehend  that  it  was  a  joke. 

Though  it  was  the  general  habit  in  Yorkshire  to  make 
visits  of  two  or  three  days  at  the  houses  in  the  neighbor 
hood,  yet  not  unfrequently  invitations  to  dinner  only 
came,  and  sometimes  to  a  house  at  a  considerable  dis 
tance. 

"Did  you  ever  dine  out  in  the  country?"  said  my 
father;  "what  misery  human  beings  inflict  on  each 
other  under  the  name  of  pleasure !  We  went  to  dine 
last  Thursday  with  Mr.  —  — ,  a  neighboring  clergyman, 
a  haunch  of  venison  being  the  stimulus  to  the  invitation. 
We  set  out  at  five  o'clock,  drove  in  a  broiling  sun  on 
dusty  roads  three  miles  in  our  best  gowns,  found  Squire 
and  parsons  assembled  in  a  small  hot  room,  the  whole 
house  redolent  of  frying ;  talked,  as  is  our  wont,  of  roads, 
weather,  and  turnips  ;  that  done,  began  to  grow  hungry, 
then  serious,  then  impatient.  At  last  a  stripling,  evi 
dently  caught  up  for  the  occasion,  opened  the  door  and 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  137 

beckoned  our  host  out  of  the  room.  After  some  mo 
ments  of  awful  suspense,  he  returned  to  us  with  a  face 
of  much  distress,  saying,  '  the  woman  assisting  in  the 
kitchen  had  mistaken  the  soup  for  dirty  water,  and  had 
thrown  it  away,  so  we  must  do  without  it ;'  we  all 
agreed  it  was  perhaps  as  well  we  should,  under  the  cir 
cumstances.  At  last,  to  our  joy,  dinner  was  announced  ; 
but  oh,  ye  gods !  as  we  entered  the  dining-room  what  a 
gale  met  our  nose !  the  venison  was  high,  the  venison 
was  uneatable,  and  was  obliged  to  follow  the  soup  with 
all  speed. 

"Dinner  proceeded,  but  our  spirits  flagged  under 
these  accumulated  misfortunes :  there  was  an  ominous 
pause  between  the  first  and  second  course ;  we  looked 
each  other  in  the  face — what  new  disaster  awaited  us  ? 
the  pause  became  fearful.  At  last  the  door  burst  open, 
and  the  boy  rushed  in,  calling  out  aloud,  '  Please,  sir, 
has  Betty  any  right  to  leather  I  ?'  What  human  graV- 
ity  could  stand  this  ?  We  roared  with  laughter ;  all  took 
part  against  Betty,  obtained  the  second  course  with  some 
difficulty,  bored  each  other  the  usual  time,  ordered  our 
carriages,  expecting  our  post-boys  to  be  drunk,  and  were 
grateful  to  Providence  for  not  permitting  them  to  deposit 
us  in  a  wet  ditch.  So  much  for  dinners  in  the  country ! " 

This  winter  he  had  another  visit  from  his  friend 
Jeffrey,  wrho  came  with  an  American  gentleman,  Mr. 
Simond,  and  his  niece,  Miss  Wilkes.  We  little  sus 
pected  then  that  this  lady,  great-niece  to  the  agitator 
Wilkes,  was  so  soon,  after  to  become  Mrs.  Jeffrey.  We 
had  also  visits  from  Mr.  Horner,  Mr.  Murray,  and  Lord 
Laudcrdale.  My  father  used  to  say  of  Mr.  Horner  that 
he  had  the  Ten  Commandments  written  on  his  face ; 
in  fact,  that  he  looked  so  virtuous,  that  he  might  com 
mit  any  crime,  and  no  one  would  believe  in  the  possi 
bility  of  his  guilt. 


138  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

It  was,  I  believe,  in  1812  that  my  father's  eldest 
brother  Robert,  who  had  gone  out  to  India,  as  Advocate- 
General  of  Bengal  eight  years  before,  returned  with  his 
wife  and  family  to  this  country — a  return  we  had  all 
been  eagerly  looking  forward  to.  Before  leaving  India, 
my  uncle  had  with  great  generosity  offered  to  remain 
there  another  year,  and  to  bestow  the  proceeds  of  his 
office  on  my  father;  but  my  father,  poor  as  he  was, 
fearing  the  effects  of  the  climate  on  his  brother,  and 
knowing  his  ardent  desire  to  return  to  England,  with 
equal  generosity  refused,  without  a  moment's  hesita 
tion,  to  accept  of  such  a  sacrifice.  We  went  to  their 
house  in  town  to  meet  them,  and  spent  some  weeks 
there. 

My  father  was  received  with  open  arms  by  all  his 
old  friends ;  and  the  pleasure  and  interest  of  this  visit 
to  his  old  haunts  was  much  enhanced  by  the  arrival  of 
his  friend  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  likewise  from  India, 
after  an  absence  from  England  of  about  the  same  time. 
lie  had  arrived  on  the  eve  of  a  general  election,  and 
during  the  excitement  of  political  changes  consequent 
upon  the  murder  of  Mr.  Pcrcival,  and  the  attempt  to 
form  a  Ministry  under  Lord  Wellesley. 

In  the  summer  Sir  James  went  with  Lady  Mackin 
tosh  to  the  Highlands,  and  on  their  return  spent  some 
days  with  my  father  at  Heslington.  In  the  autumn  of 
the  following  year,  Madame  de  Stael,  driven  from  Copet 
by  the  persecutions  of  Napoleon,  took  refuge  in  England, 
and  was  the  object  of  general  interest  and  attention. 
She  was  constantly  in  the  society  of  Sir  James  Mackin 
tosh,  and  having  heard  much  of  my  father,  and  of  his 
powers  of  conversation  and  argument,  she  was  eager  to 
make  his  acquaintance,  and  try  her  eloquence  upon  him. 
She  used  frequently  to  say  to  Sir  James,  with  the  odd 
jumble  she  made  of  English  titles  and  names,  "Mais, 


MEMOIR   OF   THE    REV.  SYDNEY    SMITH.  139 

votre  ami  Sydney  Smith,  ce  Pretre-Amiral,  pourquoi  nc 
vient-il  pas  ?" 

The  Pretre-Amiral  was  unable  to  leave  his  parish  dur 
ing  her  visit  here,  so  they  never  met ;  but  she  took  her 
revenge  some  years  after  at  Nice,  where  she  made  the 
acquaintance  of  my  father's  elder  brother  Hobert,  whose 
wonderful  powers  of  argument  and  exquisite  French  she 
reveled  in  through  a  whole  winter;  though  often  de 
feated  by  him  in  discussions,  to  the  delight  of  all  the 
English  staying  there,  whom  she  had  bullied  terribly 
before  his  arrival,  and  who  looked  up  to  him  as  a  sort 
of  champion.  "Ah !  pourquoi  nc  parlez-vous  pas  comme 
9a  dans  la  Chambrc  des  Communes  ?"  said  Madame  de 
Stael  to  him  one  day,  after  listening  for  some  time  to 
the  eloquent  flow  of  his  language.  Mr.  Canning  used 
to  say,  "  Bobus's  language  is  the  essence  of  English." 

Sir  James  Mackintosh,  speaking  of  him  in  India,  says, 
"  I  hear  frequently  of  Bobus ;  his  fame  among  the  na 
tives  is  greater  than  that  of  any  pundit  since  the  days 
of  Menu." 

The  following  year  my  uncle  came  down  with  his 
family  to  visit  us  in  Yorkshire,  and  remained  a  month 
with  us.  On  his  return  to  Northampton,  a  typhus  fever 
attacked  his  family  with  most  fearful  and  fatal  results, 
then  the  nurse,  and  lastly  himself.  My  aunt,  in  commu 
nicating  these  dreadful  tidings,  entreated  my  father  to 
come  to  their  aid,  and,  after  taking  medical  advice  as  to 
the  best  precautions  against  infection,  he  set  off,  in  spite 
of  my  mother's  earnest  entreaties,  without  a  moment's 
hesitation. 

An  intimate  friend,  who  was  staying  with  us  at  the 
time,  and  present  at  this  scene,  tells  me,  "Nothing  in 
my  long  knowledge  of  him  ever  gave  me  a  higher  idea 
of  your  father's  generosity  of  character  and  firmness  of 
principle  than  this  act;  for,  in  addition  to  his  knowl- 


140  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

edge  how  dependent  you  all  were  upon  him,  and  that 
your  mother  was  near  her  confinement,  he  went,  not 
ignorant  of,  or  despising,  the  danger,  "but  with  his 
eyes  open  to  it,  fearing  it  very  much,  and  fully  believ 
ing  he  was  going  to  meet  death.  But  in  spite  of  his 
own  fears  and  your  poor  mother's  efforts,  he  resisted, 
and  said,  '  If  any  evil  were  to  happen  to  Bobus,  I  should 
reproach  myself  all  my  life;  but,'  added  he,  'Kate, 
mind,  if  I  do  die,  you  must  always  keep  the  day  of  my 
death.'" 

He  remained  with  my  uncle  some  weeks,  until  he  had 
the  satisfaction  of  leaving  him  convalescent,  and  com 
fortably  established  in  a  house  near  Northampton,  under 
the  care  of  the  most  eminent  physician  there,  Dr.  Carr, 
uncle  to  Lady  Davy ;  and  of  returning  in  safety  to  my 
poor  mother,  whose  anxiety  during  this  period  may  easily 
be  imagined. 

Among  our  rural  delights  at  Heslington  was  the  pos 
session  of  a  young  donkey,  which  had  been  given  up  to 
our  tender  mercies  from  the  time  of  its  birth,  and  in 
whose  education  we  employed  a  large  portion  of  our 
spare  time ;  and  a  most  accomplished  donkey  it  became 
under  our  tuition.  It  would  walk  up  stairs,  pick  pock 
ets,  follow  us  in  our  walks  like  a  huge  Newfoundland 
dog,  and  at  the  most  distant  sight  of  us  in  the  field,  with 
ears  down  and  tail  erect,  it  set  off  in  full  bray  to  meet 
us.  These  demonstrations  on  Bitty's  part  were  met 
with  not  less  affection  on  ours,  and  Bitty  was  almost 
considered  a  member  of  the  family. 

One  day,  when  my  elder  brother  and  myself  were 
training  our  beloved  Bitty,  with  a  pocket-handker 
chief  for  a  bridle,  and  his  head  crowned  with  flowers, 
to  run  round  our  garden,  who  should  arrive  in  the 
midst  of  our  sport  but  Mr.  Jeffrey.  Finding  my  father 
out,  he,  with  his  usual  kindness  toward  young  peo- 


MEMOllt  OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY    SMITH.  in 

pie,  immediately  joined  in  our  sport,  and,  to  our  in 
finite  delight,  mounted  our  donkey.  He  was  proceed 
ing  in  triumph,  amidst  our  shouts  of  laughter,  when 
my  father  and  mother,  in  company,  I  believe,  with 
Mr.  Horner  and  Mr.  Murray,  returned  from  their  walk, 
and  beheld  this  scene  from  the  garden-door.  Though 
years  and  years  have  passed  away  since,  I  still  re 
member  the  joy-inspiring  laughter  that  burst  from  my 
father  at  this  unexpected  sight,  as,  advancing  toward 
his  old  friend,  with  a  face  beaming  with  delight  and 
with  extended  hands,  he  broke  forth  in  the  following 
impromptu : 

"  Witty  as  Horatius  Flaccus, 
As  great  a  Jacobin  as  Gracchus; 
Short,  though  not  as  fat,  as  Bacchus, 
Hiding  on  a  little  jackass." 

These  lines  were  afterward  repeated  by  some  one 
to  Mr.  -  -  at  Holland  House,  just  before  he  was  in 
troduced  for  the  first  time  to  Mr.  Jeffrey,  and  they 
caught  his  fancy  to  such  a  degree  that  he  could  not  get 
them  out  of  his  head,  but  kept  repeating  them  in  a  low 
voice  all  the  time  Mr.  Jeffrey  was  conversing  with  him. 

I  must  end  Bitty's  history,  as  he  has  been  introduced, 
by  saying  that  he  followed  us  to  Foston ;  and,  after 
serving  us  faithfully  for  thirteen  years,  on  our  leaving 
Yorkshire  was  permitted  by  our  kind  friend  Lord  Car 
lisle  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  in  idleness  and  plenty, 
in  his  beautiful  park,  with  an  unbounded  command  of 
thistles. 

My  father  meanwhile  had  entered  into  various  nego 
tiations  with  different  clergymen  to  effect  an  exchange 
of  livings,  but  the  conditions  imposed  by  Lord  Eldon 
had  hitherto  prevented  them  from  being  carried  into 
effect. 


142  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

He  continued,  therefore,  to  drive  over  every  week 
to  do  duty  at  his  living.  One  Sunday  (to  show  the 
very  primitive  state  of  the  villagers),  just  as  he  was 
about  to  enter  the  church,  there  was  a  general  rush  of 
the  clerk,  the  sexton,  the  churchwardens,  and  principal 
farmers  after  him,  who,  with  agitated  countenances,  ex 
claimed,  "Please  your  honor,  a  coach,  a  coach!"  My 
father,  with  a  calmness  that  filled  them  with  wonder, 
said,  "Well,  well,  my  good  friends,  stand  firm,  never 
mind ;  even  though  there  should  be  a  coach,  it  will  do 
us  no  harm ;  let  us  see."  And  certainly  a  carriage 
was  seen  approaohing,  such  as  rarely  appeared  in  those 
parts  ;  and  as  it  advanced  rapidly  toward  the  little  mis 
erable  hovel  which  had  once  been  the  parsonage-house, 
it  was  discovered  to  contain  a  very  fashionable  lady. 
The  lady  turned  out  to  be  Mrs.  Apreece,  on  her  way 
from  Scotland,  bringing  letters  of  introduction  to  my 
father,  whom  she  was  anxious  to  hear  preach ;  and  this 
was  the  beginning  of  an  acquaintance  which  after 
ward  ripened  into  intimacy,  and  several  of  the  most 
amusing  of  his  letters  are  addressed  to  her,  under  her 
more  celebrated  name  of  Lady  Davy.  She  and  Sir 
Humphry  in  after-times  not  unfrequently  put  up  at  the 
Rector's  Head  (as  my  father  used  to  call  his  house), 
and  no  landlord  could  rejoice  more  in  "a  run  on  the 
road,"  or  more  cordially  welcome  the  sight  of  an  old 
friend. 


CHAPTEE    VII. 

Builds  House. — Removes  to  Foston. — Description  of  Establishment. — 
Visit  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh. — Becomes  a  Magistrate. — Visit  to 
Newgate  with  Mrs.  Fry,  and  Sermon. — Visit  to  Sir  G.  Philips  in 
Immortal. — Forms  the  Acquaintance  of  the  Earl  of  Carlisle. — Death 
of  only  Sister. — Last  Visit  of  Mr.  Homer. — Bad  Harvest  and  Fever. 
Exertions  among  the  Poor. — Visit  from  Lord  and  Lady  Holland. — 
Leaves  off  Hiding. — Description  of  Calamity. — Shopping  and  Anec 
dotes. —  Sends  Son  to  School.' — Visits  Lord  Grey. — Account  of 
Travels. — Visit  from  Dr.  Marcet. — Conversation,  and  Bunch. — In 
scription  for  Duke  of  Bedford's  Statue. — Anecdote  of  Lord 's 

Son. — Assizes. — Hunt's  Trial. — Danger  of  bad  Harvest. — Death  of 
G  rattan. 

THUS  cheered  by  these  occasional  visits  of  his  friends, 
turning  his  back  upon  London  and  former  habits,  by 
the  aid  of  books  and  of  the  various  new  duties  and  in 
terests  he  had  created  for  himself,  he  contrived  to  pass 
through  three  years  not  unpleasantly  or  unprofitably ; 
but,  not  having  succeeded  in  his  object  of  exchange, 
lie,  according  to  his  promise  to  the  Archbishop,  set 
vigorously  to  work  to  build  his  house,  and  accomplished 
it  in  nine  months  after  laying  the  first  stone.  But  lie 
shall  here  tell  his  own  tale,  as  I  have  heard  it  at  various 
times  in  detached  portions. 

"A  diner-out,  a  wit,  and  a  popular  preacher,  I  was 
suddenly  caught  up  by  the  Archbishop  of  York,  and 
transported  to  my  living  in  Yorkshire,  where  there  had 
not  been  a  resident  clergyman  for  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years.  Fresh  from  London,  not  knowing  a  turnip  from 
a  carrot,  I  was  compelled  to  farm  three  hundred  acres, 
and  without  capital  to  build  a  parsonage-house. 

"I  asked  and  obtained  three  years'  leave  from   the 


U-i  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

Archbishop,  in  order  to  effect  an  exchange,  if  possible ; 
and  fixed  myself  meantime  at  a  small  village  two  miles 
from  York,  in  which  wras  a  fine  old  house  of  the  time 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  where  resided  the  last  of  the  squires, 
with  his  lady,  who  looked  as  if  she  had  walked  straight 
out  of  the  Ark,  or  had  been  the  wife  of  Enoch.  He 
was  a  perfect  specimen  of  the  Trullibers  of  old ;  he 
smoked,  hunted,  drank  beer  at  his  door  with  his  grooms 
and  dogs,  and  spelt  over  the  county  paper  on  Sundays. 

"  At  first,  he  heard  I  wras  a  Jacobin  and  a  dangerous 
fellow,  and  turned  aside  as  I  passed :  but  at  length, 
when  he  found  the  peace  of  the  village  undisturbed, 
harvests  much  as  usual,  Juno  and  Ponto  uninjured,  he 
first  bowed,  then  called,  and  at  last  reached  such  a 
pitch  of  confidence  that  he  used  to  bring  the  papers, 
that  I  might  explain  the  difficult  words  to  him  ;  actual 
ly  discovered  that  I  had  made  a  joke,  laughed  till  I 
thought  he  would  have  died  of  convulsions,  and  ended 
by  inviting  me  to  see  his  dogs. 

"All  my  efforts  for  an  exchange  having  failed,  I 
asked  and  obtained  from  my  friend  the  Archbishop  an 
other  year  to  build  in.  And  I  then  set  my  shoulder  to 
the  wheel  in  good  earnest ;  sent  for  an  architect ;  he 
produced  plans  which  would  have  ruined  me.  I  made 
him  my  bow:  'You  build  for  glory,  sir;  I,  for  use.' 
I  returned  him  his  plans,  with  five-and-twenty  pounds, 
and  sat  down  in  my  thinking-chair,  and  in  a  few  hours 
Mrs.  Sydney  and  I  concocted  a  plan  which  has  pro 
duced  what  I  call  the  model  of  parsonage-houses. 

"I  then  took  to  horse  to  provide  bricks  and  timber; 
was  advised  to  make  my  own  bricks,  of  my  own  clay ; 
of  course,  when  the  kiln  was  opened,  all  bad ;  mounted 
my  horse  again,  and  in  twenty-four  hours  had  bought 
thousands  of  bricks  and  tons  of  timber.  Was  advised 
by  neighboring  gentlemen  to  employ  oxen  :  bought  four 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  Ho 

—Tug  and  Lug,  Hawl  and  Crawl;  but  Tug  and  Lug 
took  to  fainting,  and  required  buckets  of  sal-volatile, 
and  Hawl  and  Crawl  to  lie  down  in  the  mud.  So  I 
did  as  I  ought  to  have  done  at  first — took  the  advice 
of  the  farmer  instead  of  the  gentleman  ;  sold  my  oxen, 
bought  a  team  of  horses,  and  at  last,  in  spite  of  a  frost 
which  delayed  me  six  weeks,  in  spite  of  walls  running 
down  with  wet,  in  spite  of  the  advice  and  remonstrances 
of  friends  who  predicted  our  death,  in  spite  of  an  infant 
of  six  months  old,  who  had  never  been  out  of  the  house, 
I  landed  my  family  in  my  new  house  nine  months  after 
laying  the  first  stone,  on  the  20th  of  March ;  and  per 
formed  my  promise  to  the  letter  to  the  Archbishop,  by 
issuing  forth  at  midnight  with  a  lantern  to  meet  the  last 
cart,  with  the  cook,  and  the  cat,  which  had  stuck  in  the 
mud,  and  fairly  established  them  before  twelve  o'clock 
at  night  in  the  new  parsonage-house — a  feat,  taking 
ignorance,  inexperience,  and  poverty  into  consideration, 
requiring,  I  assure  you,  no  small  degree  of  energy. 

"  It  made  me  a  very  poor  man  for  many  years,  but 
I  never  repented  it.  I  turned  schoolmaster,  to  educate 
my  son,  as  I  could  not  afford  to  send  him  to  school. 
Mrs.  Sydney  turned  schoolmistress,  to  educate  my  girls, 
as  I  could  not  afford  a  governess.  I  turned  farmer,  as 
I  could  not  let  my  land.  A  man-servant  was  too  ex 
pensive  ;  so  I  caught  up  a  little  garden-girl,  made  like 
a  milestone,  christened  her  Bunch,  put  a  napkin  in  her 
hand,  and  made  her  my  butler.  The  girls  taught  her 
to  read,  Mrs.  Sydney  to  wait,  and  I  undertook  her 
morals ;  Bunch  became  the  best  butler  in  the  county. 

"I  had  little  furniture,  so  I  bought  a  cart-load  of 
deals ;  took  a  carpenter  (who  came  to  me  for  parish  rr- 
lief,  called  Jack  Robinson),  with  a  face  like  a  full-moon, 
into  my  service ;  established  him  in  a  barn,  and  said, 
'Jack,  furnish  my  house.'  You  see  the  result! 
VOL.  I.— G 


146  MEMOIU  OF  THE  KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  At  last  it  was  suggested  that  a  carriage  was  much 
wanted  in  the  establishment ;  after  diligent  search,  I 
discovered  in  the  back  settlements  of  a  York  coach- 
maker  an  ancient  green  chariot,  supposed  to  have  been 

the  earliest  invention  of  the  kind.     I  "brought  it  home 

o 

in  triumph  to  my  admiring  family.  Being  somewhat 
dilapidated,  the  village  tailor  lined  it,  the  village  black 
smith  repaired  it;  nay  (but  for  Mrs.  Sydney's  earnest 
entreaties),  we  believe  the  village  painter  would  have 
exercised  his  genius  upon  the  exterior ;  it  escaped  this 
danger,  however,  and  the  result  w^as  wonderful.  Each 
year  added  to  its  charms :  it  grew  younger  and  younger; 
a  new  wheel,  a  new  spring;  I  christened  it  the  Im 
mortal  /  it  was  known  all  over  the  neighborhood  ;  the 
village  boys  cheered  it,  and  the  village  dogs  barked  at 
it ;  but  '  Faber  mere  fortune'  was  iny  motto,  and  we 
had  no  false  shame. 

"  Added  to  all  these  domestic  cares,  I  was  village 
parson,  village  doctor,  village  comforter,  village  magis 
trate,  and  Edinburgh  Reviewer ;  so  you  see  I  had  not 
much  time  left  on  my  hands  to  regret  London. 

"My  house  was  considered  the  ugliest  in  the  county, 
but  all  admitted  it  was  one  of  the  most  comfortable ; 
and  we  did  not  die,  as  our  friends  had  predicted,  of  the 
damp  walls  of  the  parsonage/' 

This  year  (1813)  was  one  of  great  exertion  and  anx 
iety  to  him,  both  in  body  and  mind ;  he  calculated  that 
in  the  course  of  it  he  must  have  ridden  several  times 
round  the  world,  in  going  backward  and  forward  from 
Ileslington.  to  his  living,  as  the  offices  of  architect, 
superintendent  of  the  works,  farmer,  clergyman,  school 
master,  were  all  centred  in  his  person  ;  while,  to  add  to 
his  anxieties  and  responsibilities,  in  September  of  this 
year  another  son  was  born  to  him. 

Soon  after  engaging  on  the  building  of  his  house,  the 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  117 

Archbishop,  who  had  been  made  more  fully  aware  of 
the  difficulties  of  my  father's  situation,  through  the  kind 
intervention  of  Mr.  Harcourt  and  other  friends,  sent  my 
father  most  unexpectedly  his  formal  permission  to  avoid 
building.  On  hearing  this,  my  father  received  many 
letters  of  remonstrance  from  Mr.  Allen,  and  his  kind 
friends  at  Holland  House,  who  always  hoped  that  some 
exchange  might  turn  up  to  restore  him  again  to  the 
south ;  and  indeed  were  constantly  making  exertions  to 
accomplish  this  object ;  but  as  the  negotiations  failed, 
I  have  not  named  them.  They  were  most  unwilling 
that  he  should  embark  in  an  undertaking  which  they 
knew  would  hamper  him  for  so  many  years  to  come. 
But  my  father  felt  it  was  his  duty  to  himself,  to  his 
parish,  and  to  the  Archbishop,  whose  indulgence  it 
would  be  base  to  abuse  ;  and  being  thoroughly  con 
vinced  of  this,  he  persevered,  in  spite  of  this  strong- 
temptation  ;  though  the  necessity  of  making  farm-build 
ings,  as  well  as  a  house,  absorbed  not  only  all  his  avail 
able  capital,  but  left  him  with  a  heavy  debt  besides. 

At  last,  however,  the  deed  was  done,  and  I  well  re 
member  the  landing  at  Foston,  March,  1814.  Indeed 
how  should  I  forget  it? — a  day  of  such  difficulty,  dis 
comfort,  bustle,  and  delight,  seldom  occurs  twice  in  one 
life. 

It  was  a  cold,  bright  March  day,  with  a  biting  cast 
wind.  The  beds  we  left  in  the  morning  had  to  be 
packed  up  and  slept  on  at  night ;  wagon  after  wagon 
of  furniture  poured  in  every  minute ;  the  roads  were  so 
cut  up  that  the  carriage  could  not  reach  the  door ;  and 
my  mother  lost  her  shoe  in  the  mud,  which  was  ankle- 
deep,  while  bringing  her  infant  up  to  the  house  in  her 
arms. 

But  oh,  the  shout  of  joy  as  we  entered  and  took  pos 
session  ! — the  first  time  in  our  lives  that  we  had  in- 


148  MEMOIlt  OE  THE   REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

habited  a  house  of  our  own.  How  we  admired  it,  ugly 
as  it  was !  With  what  pride  my  dear  father  welcomed 
us,  and  took  us  from  room  to  room ;  old  Molly  Mills, 
the  milk-woman,  who  had  had  charge  of  the  house, 
grinning  with  delight  in  the  background.  We  thought 
it  a  palace ;  yet  the  drawing-room  had  no  door,  the 
bare  plaster  walls  ran  down  with  wet,  the  windows  were 
like  ground-glass  from  the  moisture  which  had  to  be 
wiped  up  several  times  a  day  by  the  housemaid.  No 
carpets,  no  chairs,  nothing  unpacked  ;  rough  men  bring 
ing  in  rougher  packages  at  every  moment.  But  then 
was  the  time  to  behold  my  father! — amidst  the  con 
fusion,  he  thought  for  every  body,  cared  for  every  body, 
encouraged  every  body,  kept  every  body  in  good-humor. 
How  he  exerted  himself!  how  his  loud,  rich  voice  might 
be  heard  in  all  directions,  ordering,  arranging,  explain 
ing,  till  the  household  storm  gradually  subsided !  Each 
half-hour  improved  our  condition ;  fires  blazed  in  every 
room ;  at  last  we  all  sat  down  to  our  tea,  spread  by 
ourselves  on  a  huge  package  Ibefore  the  drawing-room 
fire,  sitting  on  boxes  round  it ;  and  retired  to  sleep  on 
our  beds  placed  on  the  floor — the  happiest,  merriest, 
and  busiest  family  in  Christendom.  In  a  few  days, 
under  my  father's  active  exertions,  every  thing  was  ar 
ranged  with  tolerable  comfort  in  the  little  household, 
and  it  began  to  assume  its  wonted  appearance. 

In  speaking  of  the  establishment  of  Foston,  Annie 
Kay  must  not  be  forgotten.  She  entered  our  service  at 
nineteen  years  of  age,  but  possessing  a  degree  of  sense 
a'hd  lady-like  feeling  not  often  found  in  her  situation  of 
life — first  as  nurse,  then  as  lady's-maid,  then  house 
keeper,  apothecary's  boy,  factotum,  and  friend.  All  who 
have  been  much  at  Foston  or  Combe  Florey  know  Annie 
Kay;  she  was  called  into  consultation  on  every  family 
event,  and  proved  herself  a  worthy  oracle.  Her  coun- 


MEMOIlt  OF   THE   KEV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  149 

sels  were  delivered  in  the  softest  voice,  with  the  sweet 
est  smile,  and  in  the  broadest  Yorkshire.  She  ended 
by  nursing  her  old  master  through  his  long  and  painful 
illness,  night  and  day ;  she  was  with  him  at  his  death ; 
she  followed  him  to  his  grave ;  she  was  remembered  in 
his  will ;  she  survived  him  but  two  years,  which  she 
spent  in  my  mother's  house ;  and,  after  her  long  and 
faithful  service  of  thirty  years,  was  buried  by  my  moth 
er  in  the  same  cemetery  as  her  master,  respected  and 
lamented  by  all  his  family,  as  the  most  faithful  of  serv 
ants  and  friends. 

So  much  for  the  interior  of  the  establishment.  Out- 
of-doors  reigned  Molly  Mills — cow,  pig,  poultry,  gar 
den,  and  post  woman ;  with  her  short  red  petticoat,-  her 
legs  like  millpests,  her  high  cheek-bones  red  and  shriv 
eled  like  winter  apples;  a  perfect  specimen  of  a  "yeo- 
woman ;"  a  sort  of  kindred  spirit,  too ;  for  she  was  the 
wit  of  the  village,  and  delighted  in  a  crack  with  her 
master,  wThen  she  could  get  it.  She  was  as  important 
in  her  vocation  as  Annie  Kay  in  hers ;  and  Molly  here, 
and  Molly  there,  might  be  heard  in  every  direction. 
Molly  "was  always  merry,  willing,  active,  and  true  as 
gold ;  she  had  little  book-learning,  but  enough  to  bring- 
up  two  fine  athletic  sons,  as  honest  as  herself;  though, 
unlike  her,  they  were  never  seen  to  smile,  but  were  as 
solemn  as  two  owls,  and  would,  not  have  said  a  civil 
thing  to  save  their  lives.  They  ruled  the  farm.  Add 
to  these  the  pet  donkey,  Bitty,  already  introduced  to 
the  public  ;  a  tame  fawn,  at  last  dismissed  for  eating  the 
maid's  clothes,  which  he  preferred  to  any  other  diet ;  and 
a  lame  goose,  condemned  at  last  to  be  roasted  for  eating 
all  the  fruit  in  the  garden ;  together  with  Bunch  and 
Jack  Robinson,  already  mentioned — and  you  have  the 
establishment. 

As  magistrates  were-  much  wanted  in  our  neighbor- 


150  MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

hood,  my  father  had  now,  in  addition  to  his  numerous 
avocations,  taken  upon  himself  the  duties  of  a  Justice 
of  the  Peace.  He  set  vigorously  to  work  to  study  Black- 
stone,  and  made  himself  master  of  as  much  law  as  pos 
sible,  instead  of  blundering  on,  as  many  of  his  neigh 
bors  were  content  to  do.  Partly  by  this  knowledge, 
partly  by  his  good-humor,  he  gained  a  considerable  in 
fluence  in  the  quorum,  which  used  to  meet  once  a  fort 
night  at  the  little  inn,  called  the  Lobster-house  ;  and  the 
people  used  to  say  they  were  "going  to  get  a  little  of 
Mr.  Smith's  lobster-sauce."  By  dint  of  his  powerful 
voice,  and  a  little  w^ooden  hammer,  he  prevailed  on  Bob 
and  Betty  to  speak  qne  at  a  time ;  he  always  tried,  and 
often  succeeded,  in  turning  foes  into  friends.  Having 
a  horror  of  the  Game  lawrs,  then  in  full  force,  and  know 
ing,  as  lie  states  in  his  speech  on  the  Reform  Bill, 
that  for  every  ten  pheasants  which  fluttered  in  the  wood 
one  English  peasant  was  rotting  in  jail,  he  was  always 
secretly  on  the  side  of  the  poacher  (much  to  the  indig 
nation  of  his  fellow-magistrates,  who  in  a  poacher  saw 
a  monster  of  iniquity),  and  always  contrived,  if  possi 
ble,  to  let  him  escape,  rather  than  commit  him  to  jail, 
with  the  certainty  of  his  returning  to  the  world  an  ac 
complished  villain.  He  endeavored  to  avoid  exercis 
ing  his  function  as  magistrate  in  his  own  village  when 
possible,  as  he  wished  to  be  at  peace  with  all  his  parish 
ioners. 

Young  delinquents  he  never  could  bear  to  commit ; 
but  read  them  a  severe  lecture,  and  in  extreme  cases 
called  out,  "John,  bring  me  my  private  gallows /" 
which  infallibly  brought  the  little  urchins  weeping  on 
their  knees,  and,  "Oh!  for  God's  sake,  your  honor, 
pray  forgive  us !"  and  his  honor  used  graciously  to  par 
don  them  for  this  time,  and  delay  the  arrival  of  the  pri 
vate  gallows,  and  seldom  had  occasion  to  repeat  the 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  151 

threat/*  Indeed  the  subject  of  imprisonment  occupied 
his  mind  so  much,  that  during  a  visit  to  town,  hav 
ing  been  much  interested  by  the  account  of  Mrs.  Fry's 
benevolent  exertions  in  prisons,  he  requested  permis 
sion  to  accompany,  her  to  Newgate ;  and  I  have  heard 
him  say  he  never  felt  more  deeply  affected  or  impressed 
than  by  the  beautiful  spectacle  he  there  witnessed ;  it 
made  him,  he  said,  weep  like  a  child.  In  a  sermon  he 
preached  shortly  after,  he  introduced  the  following  pas 
sage  : 

44  There  is  a  spectacle  which  this  town  now  exhibits, 
that  I  will  venture  to  call  the  most  solemn,  the  most 
Christian,  the  most  affecting  which  any  human  being 
ever  witnessed.  To  see  that  holy  woman  in  the  midst 
of  the  wretched  prisoners ;  to  see  them  all  calling  earn 
estly  upon  God,  soothed  by  her  voice,  animated  by 
her  look,  clinging  to  the  hem  of  her  garment ;  and  wor 
shiping  her  as  the  only  being  who  has  ever  loved  them, 
or  taught  them,  or  noticed  them,  or  spoken  to  them  of 
God !  This  is  the  sight  which  breaks  down  the  pageant 
of  the  world ;  which  tells  us  that  the  short  hour  of 
life  is  passing  away,  and  that  w^c  must  prepare  by  some 
good  deeds  to  meet  God ;  that  it  is  time  to  give,  to 
pray,  to  comfort ;  to  go,  like  this  blessed  woman,  and 
do  the  work  of  our  heavenly  Saviour,  Jesus,  among 
the  guilty,  among  the  broken-hearted  and  the  sick,  and 
to  labor  in  the  deepest  and  darkest  wretchedness  of 
life." 

In  February,  1815,  we  set  out  on  a  visit  to  the  late 
Sir  George  Philips ;  and  great  was  the  generalship, 
and  various  the  contrivances  to  persuade  the  far-famed 
Immortal  to  convey  us  all  safely  over  Blackstone  Edge, 
a  sort  of  Alps  between  Yorkshire  and  Lancashire,  in 
the  depths  of  winter ;  but  under  such  a  Hannibal,  all 
prospered,  and  the  Immortal  covered  itself  with  glory. 


152  MEMOIR   OF   THE    UEV.    SYDNEY    SMITH. 

In  this  house  we  spent  some  weeks  so  agreeably— 
I  believe,  I  may  say,  to  both  parties — that  the  visit 
was  by  mutual  consent  repeated  every  two  or  three 
years.  There  was  a  constant  succession  of  agreeable 
guests  ;  and  our  kind  host  so  reveled  in  my  father's  hu 
mor,  that  he  was  incessantly  stimulating  him  to  attack 
him,  which  my  father  certainly  did  most  vigorously  ;  yet 
I  believe  no  one  present  enjoyed  these  attacks  more  than 
Sir  George  himself,  who  laughed  at  them  almost  to  ex 
haustion. 

After  our  return  home,  the  chief  event  in  the  course 
of  the  summer,  which  broke  the  even  tenor  of  our  lives, 
was  a  first  visit  from  our  great  neighbors,  Lord  and 
Lady  Carlisle.  Though  not  begun  iinder  the  most  fa 
vorable  auspices,  it  must  be  mentioned  in  these  simple 
annals ;  as  from  this  visit  proceeded  not  only  much 
agreeable  society,  but  twenty  years  of  such  warm  friend 
ship  ;  such  delicate,  unvarying,  unoppressive  kindness; 
such  essential  benefits,  from  every  member  of  that  fam 
ily,  both  old  and  young,  as  must  be  always  remembered 
with  gratitude  by  us,  contributing  as  they  did  to  the 
pleasure  and  comfort  of  my  father's  life,  and  giving  him 
a  command  of  books  and  society,  which  would  other 
wise  have  been  quite  out  of  his  reach. 

Our  infant  colony  was  still  in  so  rude  a  state,  that 
roads,  save  for  a  cart,  had  hardly  been  thought  of,  when 
suddenly  a  cry  was  raised,  that  a  coach  and  four,  with 
outriders,  was  plunging  about  in  the  midst  of  a  plowed 
field  near  the  house,  and  showing  signals  of  distress. 
Plowmen  and  plow-women  were  immediately  sent  off 
to  the  rescue,  and  at  last  the  gold  coach  (as  Lady  Car 
lisle  used  to  call  it),  which  had  mistaken  the  road,  was 
guided  safely  up  to  the  house,  and  the  kind  old  Lord 
and  Lady,  not  a  little  shaken,  and  a  little  cross  at  so 
rough  a  reception,  entered  the  parsonage ;  but  the  shakes 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  153 

were  soon  forgotten,  and  good-humor  restored  ;  and  after 
some  severe  sarcasms  on  the  state  of  the  approach  to 
our  house  on  the  part  of  the  old  Earl,  and  promises  of 
amendment  on  the  part  of  my  father,  Lord  Carlisle* 
drove  off,  and  made  us  promise  to  come  and  stay  with 
him  at  Castle  Howard. 

This  was  the  first  and  last  difficulty  he  ever  found 
in  coming  to  Foston.  From  this  time  a  week  seldom 
passed  without  his  driving  over  to  occupy  his  snug  cor 
ner  by  the  parsonage  fireside,  where  his  conversation 
was  so  epigrammatic  and  full  of  anecdotes  of  past  times, 
that  it  was  always  a  most  agreeable  half  hour  to  old 
and  young.  He  never  went  away  without  leaving  some 
little  gift  in  the  shape  of  game,  fruit,  flowers,  or  other 
tokens  of  kindness. 

In  1816,  my  father  lost  his  only  sister,  Maria,  my 
mother's  earliest  friend.  Charming  in  mind  and  char 
acter,!  she  had  very  delicate  health,  and  lived  unmarried 
with  her  father  at  Bath ;  my  father  was  much  attached 
to  her,  and  felt  her  loss  severely.  He  says,  in  a  letter, 
"The  loss  of  a  person  whom  I  would  have  cultivated 
as  a  friend,  if  nature  had  not  given  her  to  me  as  a  rela 
tion,  is  a  serious  evil."  We  all  went  to  see  my  grand 
father  in  consequence  of  her  death,  and  remained  some 
time  with  him. 

On  our  return  home,  our  poor  friend  Mr.  Horner, 
whose  health  had  been  gradually  failing,  and  had  given 
great  anxiety  to  all  his  friends,  was  condemned  to  go 
and  end  his  short  but  noble  career  in  a  foreign  land; 
and  came  to  make  his  farewell  visit  to  us  at  Foston, 
where  he  was  loved  and  valued  as  a  brother.  His  mind 
appeared  more  pure  and  beautiful  than  ever ;  but  it  was 

*   Grandfather  of  the  present  Earl  of  Carlisle. 

t  Bobus  used  to  say  she  had  carried  off  all  the  good  temper  of  the 
family. 

G* 


154  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

a  melancholy  visit,  extinguishing  all  hope,  for  death,  was 
stamped  on  his  brow.  Yet,  young  as  he  was,  his  vir 
tues  had  created,  in  the  hearts  of  all  who  knew  him,  a 
lasting  monument  of  love  and  esteem,  which  death  only 
can  destroy.  My  father  says,  in  the  sketch  he  wrote 
of  Mr.  Horner,  "  There  was  in  his  look  a  calm,  settled 
love  of  all  that  was  honorable  and  good — an  air  of  wis 
dom  and  of  sweetness ;  you  saw  at  once  that  he  was  a 
great  man,  whom  nature  had  intended  for  a  leader  of 
human  beings.  You  ranged  yourself  willingly  under 
his  banners,  and  cheerfully  submitted  to  his  -sway." 
He  died  at  Pisa  the  following  spring,  attended  by  his 
brother,  and  soothed  by  the  frequent  society  and  regard 
of  the  Miss  Aliens,  his  early  friends,  who  happened  to 
be  staying  there :  a  death  so  mourned  by  his  country, 
that  I  see  Sir  James  Mackintosh  says,  "Never  was  so 
much  honor  paid  in  any  age  or  nation  to  intrinsic  claims 
alone  :  a  man  of  thirty-eight,  of  obscure  birth,  who  never 
filled  an  office,  or  had  the  power  of  obliging  a  single 
living  creature,  and  whose  grand  title  to  this  distinction 
from  an  English  House  of  Commons  was  the  belief  of 
his  virtue."  My  father  speaks  of  his  feelings  on  this 
loss,  in  the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Hornet's  younger 
brother : 

"Fosxox,  March  23,  1817. 
"MY  DEAR  SlR, 

"  I  remember  no  misfortune  of  my  life  which  I  have 
felt  so  deeply  as  the  loss  of  your  brother.  I  never  saw 
any  man  who  combined  together  so  much  talent,  worth, 
and  warmth  of  heart ;  and  we  lived  together  in  habits 
of  great  friendship  and  affection  for  many  years.  I 
shall  always  retain  a  most  lively  and  affectionate  re 
membrance  of  him  to  the  day  of  my  death.  We  shall 
be  most  happy  to  see  you  here  if  you  can  make  us  a 
visit ;  I  shall  always  meet  you  with  those  sentiments 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  155 

of  regard  and  respect  which  are  due  to  yourself,  but 
never  without  deep  feelings  of  grief  and  emotion. 

"God  bless  you! 

"  S.  S. 

"  I  beg  of  you  to  give  my  very  kind  regards  to  your 
father  and  mother ;  it  is  in  vain  to  speak  of  their  loss, 
to  write  to  them :  I  dare  not  do  it." 

And  again,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Whishaw,  he  says : 

"March  2(5,  1817. 

"  MY  DEAR  WHISHAW, 

"I  have  received  a  melancholy  fragment  from  poor 
Homer — a  letter  half  finished  at  his  death.  I  can  not 
say  how  much  I  was  affected  by  it ;  indeed,  on  looking 
back  on  my  own  mind,  I  never  remember  to  have  felt 
an  event  more  deeply  than  his  death.  It  is  very  requi 
site  that  there  should  be  a  monument  to  Homer :  it  will 
be  some  little  satisfaction  to  us  all." 

And  in  another,  he  says : 

"  I  say  nothing  of  the  great  and  miserable  loss  we 
have  all  sustained.  He  will  always  live  in  our  recollec 
tion  ;  and  it  will  be  useful  to  us  all,  in  the  great  occa 
sions  of  life,  to  reflect  how  Homer  would  act  and  think 
in  them,  if  God  had  prolonged  his  life." 

This  year,  1816,  from  the  failure  of  the  harvest,  the 
distress  among  the  poor  was  excessive.  The  wheat 
was  generally  sprouted  throughout  the  country,  and 
unfit  for  bread ;  and  good  flour  was  not  only  dear,  but 
hardly  to  be  procured.  We,  like  our  poorer  neighbors, 
being  unable  to  afford  it,  were  obliged  to  consume  our 
own  sprouted  wheat ;  and  wrc  lived  therefore  a  whole 
year,  without  tasting  bread,  on  thin,  unleavened,  sweet- 
tasting  cakes,  like  frost-bitten  potatoes,  baked  on  tins, 


150  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

the  only  way  of  using  this  damaged  flour.  The  luxury 
of  returning  to  bread  again  can  hardly  be  imagined 
by  those  who  have  never  been  deprived  of  it.  All 
this  bad  food  produced  much  illness  among  our  poor 
neighbors ;  and  a  fever  of  a  very  dangerous  and  infec 
tious  kind  broke  out  in  our  village.  My  father  was 
indefatigable  in  his  exertions  among  them,  going  from 
cottage  to  cottage,  and  providing  them  with  food  and 
medicine,  and  seeing  that  they  were  properly  attended 
to  :  his  medical  skill  stood  him  in  good  stead  now.  He 
found  it  impossible  at  first  to  prevent  the  peasants  from 
crowding  into  the  infected  houses,  till  the  number  of 
deaths  so  alarmed  them,  that  at  last  he  had  equal  diffi 
culty  in  making  them  go  at  all,  or  in  obtaining  nurses 
for  the  sick,  or  people  even  to  convey  the  bodies  to  the 
grave,  till  he  shamed  them  into  it,  by  threatening  to  be 
come  one  of  the  bearers  himself. 

He  was  much  struck  by  the  heroic  conduct  of  some 
of  the  Quakers  of  the  village,  who,  amidst  the  general 
panic,  were  constant  and  active  in  their  attention  to  the 
sick.  "Are  you  aware  of  the  danger?"  said  my  father. 
"  Oh,  we  have  no  fears ;  we  are  in  the  hands  of  God, 
thou  knowest,"  was  the  reply. 

During  the  summer,  Lord  and  Lady  Holland  came 
to  look  at  the  new  parsonage-house,  and  pass  judgment 
upon  it,  in  their  way  to  the  North.  They  left  their  eld 
est  daughter  under  my  mother's  care  during  their  ab 
sence,  to  our  great  happiness ;  during  whose  stay,  Mr. 
Rogers  spent  a  week  at  Foston,  charming  old  and  young 
by  his  kindness  and  inexhaustible  fund  of  anecdote. 
Sir  H.  Davy,  Mr.  Warburton,  and  various  others,  also 
found  their  way  to  the  "Rector's  Head"  during  the 
summer. 

My  father  at  this  period  was  in  the  habit  of  riding 
a  good  deal,  but,  either  from  the  badness  of  his  horses 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  157 

or  the  badness  of  his  riding,  or  perhaps  from  "both  (in 
spite  of  his  various  ingenious  contrivances  to  keep  him 
self  in  the  saddle),  he  had  several  falls,  and  kept  us  in 
continual  anxiety.  He  writes,  in  a  letter,  "I  used  to 
think  a  fall  from  a  horse  dangerous,  but  much  expe 
rience  has  convinced  me  to  the  contrary.  I  have  had 
six  falls  in  two  years,  and  just  behave  like  the  three 
per  cents  when  they  fall — I  got  up  again,  and  am  not 
a  bit  the  worse  for  it,  any  more  than  the  stock  in  ques 
tion."  In  speaking  of  this,  he  says,  "I  left  off  riding, 
for  the  good  of  my  parish  and  the  peace  of  my  family ; 
for,  somehow  or  other,  my  horse  and  I  had  a  habit  of 
parting  company.  On  one  occasion  I  found  myself  sud 
denly  prostrate  in  the  streets  of  York,  much  to  the  de 
light  of  the  Dissenters.  Another  time,  my  horse  Ca 
lamity  flung  me  over  his  head  into  a  neighboring  par 
ish,  as  if  I  had  been  a  shuttlecock,  and  I  felt  grateful 
it  was  not  into  a  neighboring  planet ;  but  as  no  harm 
came  of  it,  I  might  have  persevered  perhaps,  if,  on  a 
certain  day,  a  Quaker  tailor  from  a  neighboring  vil 
lage,  to  which  I  had  said  I  was  going  to  ride,  had  not 
taken  it  into  his  head  to  call,  soon  after  my  departure, 
and  request  to  see  Mrs.  Sydney.  She  instantly,  con 
ceiving  I  was  thrown,  if  not  killed,  rushed  down  to 
the  man,  exclaiming,  'Where  is  he?  where  is  your 
master  ?  is  he  hurt  T  The  astonished  and  quaking 
snip  stood  silent  from  surprise.  Still  more  agitated 
by  his  silence,  she  exclaimed,  '  Is  he  hurt  ?  I  insist 
upon  knowing  the  worst.'  'Why,  please,  ma'am,  it  is 
only  thy  little  bill,  a  very  small  account,  I  wanted  thee 
to  settle^'  replied  he,  in  much  surprise.  After  this,  you 
may  suppose,  I  sold  my  horse  ;  however,  it  is  some  com 
fort  to  know  that  my  friend  Sir  George  is  one  fall  ahead 
of  me,  and  is  certainly  a  worse  rider.  It  is  a  great  proof, 
too,  of  the  liberality  of  this  county,  where  every  body 


158  MEMOIR   OF  THE    REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH. 

can  ride  as  soon  as  they  are  born,  that  they  tolerate  me 
at  all." 

The  horse  Calamity,  whose  name  has  been  thus  in 
troduced,  was  the  first-born  of  several  young  horses 
bred  on  the  farm,  who  turned  out  very  fine  creatures, 
and  gained  him  great  glory,  even  among  the  know 
ing  farmers  of  Yorkshire ;  but  this  first  production  was 
certainly  not  encouraging.  To  his  dismay,  a  huge,  lank, 
large-boned  foal  appeared,  of  chestnut  color,  and  with 
four  white  legs.  It  grew  apace,  but  its  bones  became 
more  and  more  conspicuous  ;  its  appetite  was  unbound 
ed — grass,  hay,  corn,  beans,  food  moist  and  dry,  were 
all  supplied  in  vain,  and  vanished  down  his  throat  with 
incredible  rapidity.  He  stood,  a  large  living  skele 
ton,  with  famine  written  in  his  face,  and  my  father 
christened  him  Calamity.  As  Calamity  grew  to  matu 
rity,  he  was  found  to  be  as  sluggish  in  disposition  as 
his  master  was  impetuous  ;  so  my  father  was  driven 
to  invent  his  patent  Tantalus,  which  consisted  of  a 
small  sieve  of  corn,  suspended  on  a  semicircular  bar 
of  iron,  from  the  ends  of  the  shafts,  just  beyond  the 
horse's  nose.  The  corn,  rattling  as  the  vehicle  pro 
ceeded,  stimulated  Calamity  to  unwonted  exertions  ;  and 
under  the  hope  of  overtaking  this  imaginary  feed,  lie  did 
more  work  than  all  the  previous  provender  which  had 
been  poured  down  his  throat  had  been  able  to  obtain 
from  him. 

He  was  very  fond  of  his  young  horses,  and  they  all 
came  running  to  meet  him  when  he  entered  the  field. 
He  began  their  education  from  their  birth  :  he  taught 
them  to  wear  a  girth,  a  bridle,  a  saddle,  to  meet  flags, 
music,  to  bear  the  firing  of  a  pistol  at  their  heads,  from 
their  earliest  years,  and  he  maintained  that  no  horses 
were  so  well  broken  as  his. 

After  our  establishment  at  Foston,  an  old  ladv,  the 


MEMOIR   OF  THE    REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  159 

widow  of  an  artist,  a  woman  of  some  fortune,  large  di 
mensions,  considerable  talents,  and  much  oddity,  came 
to  establish  herself  in  a  small  cottage  at  no  great  dis 
tance,  and  was  so  delighted  with  her  neighbor,  that  she 
kindly  offered  to  drop  in  (as  she  said)  frequently  to  tea. 
My  father,  though  the  most  sociable  of  human  beings, 
felt  rather  alarmed  at  this  threatened  invasion  of  his 
privacy ;  yet,  unwilling  to  hurt  the  old  lady,  he  at  last 
bethought  himself  of  writing  a  most  comical  letter,  full 
of  all  sorts  of  imaginary  facts,  to  her,  accepting  her  offer, 
only  begging  to  have  full  notice  of  her  approach  :  "  for,'' 
said  he,  "  at  home  I  sit  in  an  old  coat,  which  may  have 
a  hole  in  it ;  now  I  like  to  appear  before  you  in  my  best. 
When  alone  we  have  the  black  kettle,  we  should  have 
the  urn  for  you ;  Bunch  would  have  on  her  clean  apron 
and  her  hair  brushed,  etc.,  etc."  This  answered  very 
well  to  both  parties.  But  the  tale  goes  further.  The 
good  widow,  ripe  in  years,  at  last  died,  leaving  her  prop 
erty  to  an  amiable  young  female  friend,  whom  she  had 
adopted,  and  who  thus  became  our  neighbor.  About 
the  same  time,  an  Italian  refugee,  of  very  good  family, 
had  come  to  settle  at  York,  and  most  honorably  endeav 
ored  to  support  himself  by  giving  lessons  in  Italian.  He 
brought  letters  of  introduction  to  my  father  from  Lord 
Holland,  who  had  known  him  or  his  family  in  Italy. 
We  found  him  a  man  of  talent,  cultivation,  and  high 
feeling,  and  the  more  we  saw  of  him  the  more  we  liked 
him.  The  Count  and  our  neighbor  frequently  met  at 
our  house,  and  seeming  mutually  to  like  each  other,  my 
father  thought  it  right  to  make  further  inquiries  respect 
ing  the  character  of  the  former,  and  finding  it  most  sat 
isfactory,  he  promoted  their  intercourse,  and  it  ended  in 
a  marriage  from  our  house.  The  evening  before  the 
marriage,  my  father,  fearing  the  poor  Count,  from  the 
necessary  preparations  for  his  marriage,  might  possibly 


16U  MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

be  in  some  little  difficulty  for  his  immediate  necessities, 
delicately  offered  to  assist  him ;  Tbut,  with  a  burst  of 
gratitude,  in  liis  own  beautiful  tongue  lie  exclaimed  joy 
ously,  "  No,  no ;  thank  God,  I  have  paid  every  debt  I 
owed  in  the  world,  and  have  still  this  in  my  pocket  1" 
holding  forth  half-a-crown. 

He  did  not  live  very  many  years  to  enjoy  his  good 
fortune,  but  we  had  frequent  opportunities  during  that 
period  of  hearing  of  their  mutual  happiness. 

It  was  somewhere  about  this  period,  I  believe,  that, 
by  Lord  Ossory's  death,  the  living  of  Ampthill,  then 
vacant,  came  into  his  nephew,  Lord  Holland's,  gift ; 
and  he  immediately  wrote,  with  his  usual  kindness,  to 
offer  it  to  my  father.  But  being  untenable  with  Foston, 
and  of  inferior  value,  my  father  was  obliged  to  relinquish 
what  to  him  would  have  been  a  source  of  constant  en 
joyment,  the  vicinity  to  Lord  Holland  and  to  all  his 
early  friends  ;  and  to  turn  his  mind,  with  renewed  vigor, 
to  the  growing  necessities  of  his  little  northern  colony, 
which  had  suffered  for  the  moment  by  this  change  of 
prospects  put  before  him. 

Nothing  was  more  amusing  than  to  accompany  my 
father  in  a  round  of  shopping,  or  providing  for  the  ship, 
as  he  called  it.  On  entering  a  shop  where  he  was  known, 
all  were  eager  to  serve  him.  Gradually,  as  he  talked, 
all  other  business  was  suspended,  and  you  often  saw 
both  customer  and  shop-boy  forgetting  their  own  busi 
ness,  and  turning  round  to  listen.  In  five  minutes  he 
seemed  to  know  more  of  each  man's  trade  than  he  knew 
himself,  and  had  extracted  from  him,  before  he  was 
aware,  not  only  all  he  meant  to  tell,  but  all  he  meant 
to  conceal ;  and  was  off  on  his  road  again,  laden  with 
useful  knowledge,  before  the  astonished  burgher  was 
aware  of  the  wisdom  which  had  gone  out  of  him. 

One  day,  when  we  were  on  a  visit  at  Bishopthorpe, 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  id 

soon  after  lie  Lad  preached  a  visitation  sermon,  in  wliicli, 
among  other  things,  he  had  recommended  the  clergy  not 
to  devote  too  much  time  to  shooting  and  hunting,  the 
Archbishop,  who  rode  beautifully  in  his  youth,  and 
knew  full  well  my  father's  deficiencies  in  this  respect, 
said,  smiling  and  evidently  much  amused,  "I  hear, 
Mr.  Smith,  you  do  not  approve  of  much  riding  for  the 
clergy?"  uWhy,  my  Lord,"  said  my  father,  bowing 
with  assumed  gravity,  "perhaps  there  is  not  much  ob 
jection,  provided  they  do  not  ride  too  well,  and  stick 
out  their  toes  professionally."  Mr.  M.,  a  Catholic  gen 
tleman  present,  looked  out  of  the  window  of  the  room 
in  which  they  were  sitting.  "Ah,  I  see,  you  think 
you  will  get  out,"  said  my  father,  laughing,  "but  you 
are  quite  mistaken ;  this  is  the  wing  where  the  Arch 
bishop  shuts  up  the  Catholics ;  the  other  wing  is  full 
of  Dissenters." 

Coming  down  one  morning  at  Foston,  I  found  Bunch 
pacing  up  and  down  the  passage  before  her  master's 
door,  in  a  state  of  great  perturbation.  "What  is  the 
matter,  Bunch?"  "Oh,  ma'am,  I  can't  get  no  peace 
of  mind  till  I've  got  master  shaved,  and  he's  so  late  this 
morning;  he's  not  come  down  yet."  This  getting  master 
shaved,  consisted  in  making  ready  for  him,  with  a  large 
painter's  brush,  a  thick  lather  in  a  huge  wooden  bowl, 
as  big  as  Mambrino's  helmet,  which  she  always  consid 
ered  as  the  most  important  avocation  of  the  morning. 

Johnson  says,  "The  truly  strong  and  sound  mind 
is  the  mind  that  can  embrace  equally  great  things  and 
small."  If  this  definition  be  just,  my  father's  mind 
fully  deserved  these  epithets,  for  he  thought  nothing 
unworthy  of  his  talents  that  could  be  improved  by 
them.  "I  dislike  those  large  white  blinds,"  I  remem 
ber  he  said  on  one  occasion;  "I  can't  afford  painted 
ones  ;  now,  girls,  why  not  try  patchwork  ?  Get  rich 


U12  MKMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.    SYDNEY    SMITH. 

glazed  cottons,  combine  your  colors  well,  and  select  a 
classical  pattern,  and  I  am  sure  the  effect  will  be  very 
good."  We  exclaimed,  laughed  at  him,  remonstrated, 
declared  it  would  be  hideous,  but  obeyed.  Each  took 
a  window ;  and  under  my  mother's  skillful  direction, 
much  to  our  own  surprise,  executed  his  idea  with  such 
success  that  the  Combe  Florey  and  Foston  blinds  ex 
cited  universal  admiration ;  and  there  are  many  now 
alive  who,  I  daresay,  remember  them,  and  some  who 
imitated  them. 

In  the  summer,  hearing  that  an  old  friend,  a  lawyer 
of  great  eminence,  witli  his  family,  had  been  unexpect 
edly  detained  at  York  by  the  dangerous  illness  of  a  near 
relation,  wdiile  his  two  little  girls  were  pining  for  fresh 
air  after  the  hooping-cough,  which  they  had  just  had, 
my  father  immediately  insisted  that  they  should  be  sent 
to  Foston,  and  intrusted  to  my  mother's  care.  This 
made  us  a  little  anxious,  as  he  had  never  had  the  com 
plaint  himself:  a  rule  therefore  was  made,  that  the  dear 
little  girls  were  never  to  approach  him  nearer  than  arm 
and  stick  length.  I  can  see  him  even  now,  laughingly 
warding  them  off,  or  running  away  from  them  in  the 
garden  at  Foston,  to  their  great  delight,  while  they  pur 
sued,  and  their  bright  young  faces  in  merry  conference 
with  him  at  the  end  of  his  stick.  Years  and  years  have 
passed  away  since  that  time,  and  they,  after  having 
grown  up  into  that  beauty  of  mind  and  body  which  so 
fitted  them  for  it,  have  long,  long  since,  I  will  not  say 
sunk  into  their  graves,  but  risen  to  that  heaven,  of 
which  their  pure  and  blameless  lives  made  all  who  knew 
them  feel  they  were  so  worthy.  No  evil  ensued  ;  and 
this  little  incident  only  served  to  cement  still  closer  a 
friendship  of  many  years'  standing.  I  only  allude  to  it 
now  to  show  my  father's  forgetfulness  of  self  where  his 
heart  was  concerned. 


MEMOIR    OF   THE    KEY.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  ]oy 

He  never  indulged  in  any  pleasures  in  which  his  fam 
ily  did  not  share.  Passionately  fond  of  books,  he  hardly 
added  one  volume,  through  all  his  years  of  poverty,  to 
the  precious  little  store  he  brought  down  with  him  from 
London ;  though  without  a  Cyclopiedia,  or  many  of  those 
books  of  reference,  of  which  he  so  often  felt  the  want  in 
his  literary  pursuits.  These  circumstances  render  yet 
more  remarkable  all  that  he  has  said  and  done  during 

O 

this  period.  When  a  present  of  books  arrived  (no  very 
unfrequcnt  event)  from  some  of  his  kind  old  friends,  who 
knew  the  pleasure  it  would  afford,  he  was  almost  child 
like  in  his  delight,  particularly  if  the  binding  was  gay ; 
and  I  have  often  been  summoned  (in  my  office  of  libra 
rian,  which  I  held,  together  with  that  of  apothecary's 
boy)  to  arrange  and  re-arrange  them  on  the  shelves, 
in  order  to  place  them  in  the  most  conspicuous  situa 
tion. 

We  had  all  our  offices :  he  appointed  my  sister  (who, 
from  her  talents,  was  well  fitted  for  this  office),  to  be 
his  Livy ;  and  we  have  often  laughed  over  his  siiffces- 

«/    7  o  oo 

tions  as  to  how  our  domestic  events  ought  to  be  record 
ed  for  the  advantage  of  posterity.  But  his  Livy  was 
carried  off  too  young,  I  fear,  to  have  made  any  progress 
in  her  history.  My  dear  mother,  from  her  skill  in  do 
mestic  economy,  he  christened  Mrs.  Balwhidder,  in  al 
lusion  to  that  pretty  talc  by  Gait,  called  "Annals  of 
ihe  Parish,*'  which  he  delighted  in.  Annie  Kay  was 
prime  minister ;  in  short,  my  father  infused  something 
of  his  spirit  into  the  most  commonplace  events  of  life, 
and  lie  could  not  order  even  a  dose  of  physic  for  his 
carter  but  there  was  fun  and  originality  in  the  act. 

It  is  said  that  nobody  could  stand  witli  Burke  under 
a  doorway  in  a  shower  of  rain  without  finding  him  out 
to  be  an  extraordinary  man :  so,  of  my  father,  I  have 
heard  it  off  on  said  that  it  was  impossible  to  converse 


164  MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

with  him  for  five  minutes,  and  not  feel  he  was  not  like 
other  men.  I  have  seen  him  melt  an  exquisite  of  the 
first  water,  in  a  most  amusing  manner.  Being  very 
punctual  (too  punctual  indeed — it  was  the  only  virtue 
he  made  disagreeable),  he  not  unfrequently  arrived  to 
dinner  before  the  lady  of  the  house  was  dressed,  and 
received  her  company  for  her.  A  dandy  would  appear 
all  glorious  without,  whose  neckcloth,  shirt,  and  white 
gloves  were  unimpeachable,  and  the  evident  result  of 
profound  study ;  and  who,  not  having  been  introduced, 
of  course,  in  true  English  style,  appeared  unconscious 
that  another  mortal  was  in  the  same  room  with  him. 
My  father,  whose  neckcloth  always  looked  like  a  pud 
ding  tied  round  his  throat,  and  the  arrangement  of  whose 
garments  seemed  more  the  result  of  accident  than  design 
(yet,  I  ought  to  add,  as  I  am  now  writing  for  those  who 
knew  him  not,  always  looked  like  a  gentleman,  in  its 
best  sense — that  is,  as  one  who  deserved  respect),  eyed 
him  calmly  for  a  minute,  as  if  to  take  his  measure,  then 
addressed  him.  The  dandy  started,  and  bowed  stiffly 
over  his  neckcloth.  The  second  observation  made  him 
evidently  say  to  himself,  "  Can  that  observation  come 
out  of  that  neckcloth  ?"  The  third  convinced  him  there 
was  something  better,  or  at  least  equal  to  neckcloths 
in  the  world ;  and  by  the  time  the  lady  of  the  house 
arrived  they  had  sworn  eternal  friendship. 

In  the  summer  of  this  year,  1817,  my  uncle  and  his 
family  joined  us  for  a  month  at  Scarborough,  and  after 
ward  returned  with  us  to  Foston ;  and  it  was  during 
this  visit  that,  finding  my  father  quite  unable  to  afford 
sending  his  eldest  son,  Douglas,  to  school,  he  most 
kindly  offered  to  assist  him.  Not  thinking  himself  just 
ified  in  refusing  Douglas  so  great  an  advantage,  my  fa 
ther  accepted  a  hundred  a  year  for  this  purpose ;  and 
in  the  following  year  placed  him  at  Westminster  school, 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  KEV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  105 

which  lie  quitted  some  years  after  with  great  distinc 
tion,  as  Captain  of  the  College. 

In  1820  my  father  went  on  a  visit  of  a  few  days  to 
Lord  Grey's ;  then  to  Edinburgh  to  see  Jeffrey  and  his 
other  old  friends ;  and  returned  "by  Lord  Lauderdale's 
house  at  Dtinbar.  Speaking  of  this  journey,  he  says, 
"Most  people  sulk  in  stage-coaches,  I  always  talk.  I 
have  had  some  amusing  journeys  from  this  habit.  On 
one  occasion,  a  gentleman  in  the  coach  with  me,  with 
whom  I  had  been  conversing  for  some  time,  suddenly 
looked  out  of  the  window  as  we  approached  York  and 
said,  '  There  is  a  very  clever  man,  they  say,  but  a  d — s 
odd  fellow,  lives  near  here — Sydney  Smith,  I  believe.' 
'He  may  be  a  very  odd  fellow,'  said  I,  taking  off  my 
hat  to  him  and  laughing,  '  and  I  dare  say  he  is ;  but 
odd  as  he  is,  he  is  here,  very  much  at  your  service.' 
Poor  man !  I  thought  he  would  have  sunk  into  his 
boots,  and  vanished  through  the  bed  of  the  carriage,  he 
was  so  distressed ;  but  I  thought  I  had  better  tell  him 
at  once,  or  he  might  proceed  to  say  I  had  murdered  my 
grandmother,  which  I  must  have  resented,  you  know. 

"  On  another  occasion  some  years  later,  when  going 
to  Brougham  Hall,  two  raw  Scotch  girls  got  into  the 
coach  in  the  dark,  near  Carlisle.  '  It  is  very  disagree 
able  getting  into  a  coach  in  the  dark,'  exclaimed  one, 
after  arranging  her  bandboxes  ;  '  one  can  not  see  one's 
company.'  'Very  true,  ma'am,  and  you  have  a  great 
loss  in  not  seeing  me,  for  I  am  a  remarkably  handsome 
man.'  'No,  sir!  are  you  really?'  said  both.  'Yes, 
and  in  the  flower  of  my  youth.'  'What  a  pity!'  said 
they.  We  soon  passed  near  a  lamp-post :  they  both 
darted  forward  to  get  a  look  at  me.  '  La,  sir,  you  seem 
very  stout.'  'Oh  no,  not  at  all,  ma'am,  it's  only  my 
great  coat.'  'Where  are  you  going,  sir?'  'To  Brough 
am  Hall.'.  '  Why,  you  must  be  a  very  remarkable  man, 


166  MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

to  be  going  to  Brougham  Hall.'  'I  am  a  very  remark 
able  man,  ma'am.'  At  Penrith  they  got  out,  after  hav 
ing  talked  incessantly,  and  tried  every  possible  means 
to  discover  who  I  was,  exclaiming  as  they  went  off 
laughing,  '  Well,  it  is  very  provoking  we  ean't  see  you, 
but  we'll  find  out  who  you  are  at  the  ball ;  Lord 
Brougham  always  comes  to  the  ball  at  Penrith,  and  we 
shall  certainly  be  there,  and  shall  soon  discover  your 
name.' " 

In  the  summer,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Marcet  came  with  their 
two  daughters  to  spend  some  days  with  us. 

Mrs.  Marcet  writes:  "Mr.  Smith  was  talking  after 
breakfast  with  Dr.  Marcet,  in  a  very  impressive  and  seri 
ous  tone,  on  scientific  subjects,  and  I  was  admiring  the 
enlarged  and  philosophic  manner  in  which  he  discoursed 
on  them,  when  suddenly  starting  up,  he  stretched  out 
his  arms  and  said,  t  Come,  now  let  us  talk  a  little  non 
sense.'  And  then  came  such  a  flow  of  wit,  and  joke, 
and  anecdote,  such  a  burst  of  spirits,  such  a  charm  and 
freshness  of  manner,  such  an  irresistible  laugh,  that 
Solomon  himself  would  have  yielded  to  the  infection, 
and  called  out,  Nonsense  forever ! " 

I  have  been  told  it  is  the  opinion  of  one  who  knew 
my  father  well,  and  whose  opinion  I  value,  that  I  have 
hardly  done  justice  to  the  more  serious  part  of  his  char 
acter.  If  this  be  so,  I  have  indeed  done  him  grievous 
wrong  ;  for  this  was  the  foundation,  or  rather  storehouse, 
from  which  ail  his  wit  and  imagination  sprang,  and 
which  gave  them  such  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 
The  expression  of  my  father's  face  when  at  rest  was 
that  of  sense  and  dignity ;  and  th\s  was  the  picture  of 
his  mind  in  the  calmer  and  graver  hours  of  life :  but 
when  he  found  (as  we  sometimes  do)  a  passage  that 
bore  the  stamp  of  immortality,  his  countenance  in  an 
instant  changed  and  lighted  up,  and  a  sublime  thought, 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  107 

sight,  or  action,  struck  on  his  soul  at  once,  and  found  a 
kindred  spark  within  it. 

Mrs.  Marcet  has  just  spoken  of  his  rapid  transition 
from  sense  to  nonsense ;  I  remember  a  similar  in 
stance  of  his  rapid  transition  from  gayety  to  the  deepest 
pathos.  Some  ladies  walking  with  me,  seeing  my  father 
sitting  at  his  singular  writing  establishment  in  the  bay, 
went  in  through  his  glorified  windows,  and  established 
themselves  round  his  table,  he  talking  in  his  gayest 
and  most  animated  manner ; — in  an  instant  his  counte 
nance  and  tone  changed,  and  he  gave  expression  to  tho 
thought  within  him,  with  a  pathos  that  touched  all,  for 
there  was  a  tear  in  every  eye.  Strange  to  say,  vivid  as 
this  scene  is  to  my  mind,  I  can  neither  recall  a  word 
he  said,  nor  the  subject  of  the  conversation ;  but  it 
struck  me  as  an  instance  of  great  power.  His  reason 
ing  powers  are  sufficiently  before  the  world  in  his 
works.  He  loved  argument  on  serious  and  important 
subjects,  but  always  after  his  own  fashion  ;  throwing 
aside  all  extraneous  matter,  and  by  two  or  three  pointed 
questions,  marching  up  at  once  to  the  point.  He  argued 
with  perfect  temper  in  society,  or  if  he  saw  the  argu 
ment  becoming  long  or  warm,  in  a  moment  he  dashed 
over  his  opponent's  trenches,  and  was  laughingly  attack 
ing  him  on  some  fresh  point.  In  sorrow  or  misfortune, 
he  used  to  say,  the  great  sting  was  self-reproach.  In 
all  the  important  affairs  of  life  a  man  ought  to  make 
every  possible  exertion  that  he  can  with  honor,  and 
then,  and  not  till  then,  sit  down  and  cast  his  care  upon 
God,  for  lie  careth  for  him.  I  have  heard  him  say, 
u  Some  very  excellent  people  tell  you  they  dare  not 
hope  ;  why  do  they  not  dare  to  hope  ?  To  me  it  seems 
much  more  impious  to  dare  to  despair."  I  have  already 
shown  that  lie  studied  much,  and  had  always  some  use 
ful  purpose  in  hand.  The  real  way  to  improve,  he  said, 


168  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

is  not  so  much  by  varied  reading,  as  by  finding  out 
your  weak  points  on  any  subject,  and  mastering  them ; 
this  was  his  constant  practice.  But  to  return  to  Mrs. 
Marcet : 

"  I  was  coming  down  stairs  the  next  morning  (she 
continues),  when  Mr.  Smith  suddenly  said  to  Bunch, 
who  was  passing,  '  Bunch,  do  you  like  roast  duck  or 
boiled  chicken  ?'  Bunch  had  probably  never  tasted 
either  the  one  or  the  other  in  her  life,  but  answered, 
without  a  moment's  hesitation,  '  Koast  duck,  please, 
sir,'  and  disappeared.  I  laughed.  'You  may  laugh,' 
said  he,  '  but  you  have  no  idea  of  the  labor  it  has  cost 
me  to  give  her  that  decision  of  character.  The  York 
shire  peasantry  are  the  quickest  and  shrewdest  in  the 
world,  but  you  can  never  get  a  direct  answer  from  them  ; 
if  you  ask  them  even  their  own  names,  they  always 
scratch  their  heads,  and  say,  '  A  's  sur  ai  don't  knaw, 
sir;'  but  I  have  brought  Bunch  to  such  perfection, 
that  she  never  hesitates  now  on  any  subject,  however 
difficult.  I  am  very  strict  with  her.  Would  you  like 
to  hear  her  repeat  her  crimes  ?  She  has  them  by  heart, 
and  repeats  them  every  day.' 

"'Come  here,  Bunch!'  (calling  out  to  her),  'come 
and  repeat  your  crimes  to  Mrs.  Marcet ;'  and  Bunch,  a 
clean,  fair,  squat,  tidy  little  girl,  about  ten  or  twelve 
years  of  age,  quite  as  a  matter  of  course,  as  grave  as 
a  judge,  without  the  least  hesitation,  and  with  a  loud 
voice,  began  to  repeat — '  Plate-snatching,  gravy-spill 
ing,  door-slamming,  blue-bottle-fly-catching,  and  court 
esy-bobbing.'  'Explain  to  Mrs.  Marcet  what  blue- 
bottle-fly-catching  is.'  '  Standing  with  my  mouth  open 
and  not  attending,  sir.'  'And  what  is  courtesy-bob 
bing  ?'  '  Courtesy  ing  to  the  centre  of  the  earth,  please, 
sir.'  'Good  girl!  now  you  may  go.'  She  makes  a 
capital  waiter,  I  assure  you ;  on  state  occasions  Jack 


MEMOIR   OF    THE    REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  loo 

Robinson,  my  carpenter,  takes  off  his  apron  and  waits 
too,  and  does  pretty  well,  but  lie  sometimes  naturally 
makes  a  mistake  and  sticks  a  gimlet  into  the  bread 
instead  of  a  fork."1 

Once,  when  we  were  on  a  visit  at  Lord  -  — 's, -we 
were  sitting  with  a  large  party  at  luncheon,  when  our 
host's  eldest  son,  a  fine  boy  of  between  eight  and  nine, 
burst  into  the  room,  and,  running  up  to  his  father, 
began  a  playful  skirmish  with  him ;  the  boy,  half  in 
play,  half  in  earnest,  hit  his  father  in  the  face,  who,  to 
carry  on  the  joke,  put  up  both  his  hands,  saying,  "Oh, 

B ,  you  have  put  out  my  eye."  In  an  instant  the 

blood  mounted  to  the  boy's  temples,  he  flung  his  little 
arms  round  his  father,  and  sobbed  in  such  a  paroxysm 
of  grief  and  despair,  that  it  was  some  time  before  even 
his  father's  two  bright  eyes  beaming  on  him  with  pleas 
ure  could  convince  him  of  the  truth,  and  restore  him  to 
tranquillity. 

When  he  left  the  room,  my  father,  who  had  silently 
looked  with  much  interest  and  emotion  on  the  scene, 
said,  "I  congratulate  you;  I  guarantee  that  boy; 
make  your  hearts  easy ;  however  he  may  be  tossed 
about  the  world,  with  those  feelings,  and  such  a  heart, 
he  will  come  out  unscathed." 

The  father,  one  of  those  who  consider  their  fortune 
but  as  a  loan,  to  be  employed  in  spreading  an  atmos 
phere  of  virtue  and  happiness  around  them  as  far  as 
their  influence  reaches,  is  now  no  more,  and  this  son 
occupies  his  place ;  but  his  widowed  mother  the  other 
day  reminded  me  how  true  the  prophecy  had  proved ; 
and  the  scene  was  so  touching  that  I  can  not  resist  giv 
ing  it. 

My  father  comically  alludes  to  the  solitary  life  we  led 
at  this  time,  saying  in  one  of  his  letters  to  a  friend, 
"  Let  us  know  when  you  pass,  and  we  will  write  a  letter 
VOL.  L— IT 


170  MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.    SYDNEY  SMITH. 

to  tell  you  whether  we  arc  at  home  or  not.  It  is  twen 
ty  to  one  against  our  being  engaged,  as  we  only  dine 
out  once  in  seven  or  eight  years,  and  that  septennial 
exertion  was  made  last  year.'' 

As  our  opportunities  for  society  were  thus  few,  my 
father  occasionally  took  lodgings  for  us  during  the  as 
sizes  in  York,  which  enabled  us  to  sec  a  great  deal  of 
the  principal  lawyers  on  the  northern  circuit.  Among 
these  were  some  of  the  early  legal  friends  he  had  made 
when  first  settling  in  his  little  house  in  Doughty  Street, 
such  as  Mr.  Scarlett,  Brougham,  Parke,  Tindal,  and 
many  others  then  beginning  life,  but  all  since  become 
of  high  eminence  in  their  profession.  It  was  on  the  oc 
casion  of  one  of  these  York  assizes  that  Lord  Lyiidhurst, 
then  Sir  John  Copley,  came  there  on  a  special  retainer, 
and  dined  with  us,  together  with  a  large  party  of  law 
yers  ;  and  contributed  not  a  little,  by  his  powers  of 
conversation,  to  one  of  the  most  agreeable  dinners  I 
ever  remember.  Little  did  we  then  guess  how  much  he 
was  to  contribute  hereafter  to  the  happiness  and  comfort. 
of  my  father's  life.  At  this  time  Hunt's  trial  was  going 
on,  and  excited  much  interest  in  the  public  mind.  My 
father  attended  through  the  whole  trial,  and  has  ex 
pressed  in  some  of  his  letters  how  much  he  was  struck 
by  the  natural  and  untaught  ability  which  Hunt  evinced 
in  the  conduct  and  defense  of  his  cause. 

This  summer  my  father  went  with  his  family  to 
Bishop's  Lydiard,  in  Somersetshire,  to  visit  my  grand 
father,  who,  though  a  very  old  man,  was  still  in  high 
vigor,  both  of  body  and  mind ;  and,  I  think,  more  pic 
turesque  and  agreeable  than  ever. 

On  our  return  in  the  autumn,  we  were  in  great  danger 
of  having  a  repetition  of  the  disastrous  harvest  of  1816, 
from  the  precarious  state  of  the  weather ;  and  it  was 
only  by  my  father's  constant  activity  and  energy  that 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  171 

it  was  prevented.  For  lie  infused,  by  his  presence,  ap 
probation,  and  good-humor,  such  activity  and  good-will 
among  liis  workmen,  that  they  volunteered  to  continue 
their  labors  in  relays  all  night,  and  persevered  till  the 
harvest  was  saved ;  while  he  came  among  them  con 
tinually,  and  took  care  to  have  large  tables  in  the  barn 
covered  with  meat  and  drink  for  them. 

Among  the  friends  my  father  made  at  the  later  period 
of  his  residence  in  London,  was  Mr.  Grattan.  Attracted 
not  only  by  what  attracted  all  the  world  (Mr.  Grattan's 
high  character  and  great  abilities),  but  by  his  ardent 
zeal  for  the  two  objects  my  father  had  always  most  at 
heart — Ireland,  and  the  Catholic  question — he  sought 
every  opportunity  of  cultivating  Mr.  Grattan's  society 
which  the  short  visits  he  was  now  able  to  make  to  Lon 
don  afforded. 

The  death  of  this  great  man,  which  took  place  in 
L820,  about  the  period  I  am  now  arrived  at,  was  as 
cribed  in  great  measure  to  his  coming  over  with  a  peti 
tion  on  the  Catholic  question,  when  in  a  state  of  health 
which  rendered  him  unfit  for  such  exertion.  My  father 
joined  warmly  in  the  general  regret  for  the  loss  of  such 
a  man,  and,  in  an  article  in  the  Edinburgh  Heview,  on 
"Ireland,"  shortly  after,  expresses  his  admiration  in  a 
sketch  of  his  friend,  which,  being  as  short  as  it  is 
beautiful,  I  shall  extract : 

"Great  men  hallow  a  whole  people,  and  lift  up  all 
who  live  in  their  time.  What  Irishman  does  not  feel 
proud  that  he  has  lived  in  the  days  of  Grattan  ?  Who 
has  not  turned  to  him  for  comfort,  from  the  Mse  friends 
and  open  enemies  of  Ireland  ?  who  did  not  remember 
him  in  the  days  of  its  burnings,  wastings,  and  murders  ? 
Xo  government  ever  dismayed  him — the  world  could 
not  bribe  him — he  thought  only  of  Ireland :  lived  for 


172  MEMOIR  OF   THE   KEV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

no  other  object,  dedicated  to  her  his  beautiful  fancy,  his 
elegant  wit,  his  manly  courage,  and  all  the  splendor  of 
his  astonishing  eloquence. 

"He  was  so  born,  so  gifted,  that  poetry,  forensic 
skill,  elegant  literature,  and  all  the  highest  attainments 
of  human  genius  were  within  his  reach ;  but  he  thought 
the  noblest  occupation  of  a  man  was  to  make  other  men 
happy  and  free ;  and  in  that  straight  line  lie  kept  for 
fifty  years,  without  one  side-look,  one  yielding  thought, 
one  motive  in  his  heart  which  he  might  not  have  laid 
open  to  the  view  of  God  or  man." 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Legacy. — Visit  to  Edinburgh. — Visits  London  :  Popularity  there. — 
Letters  to  Home,  and  care  of  Parish. — Takes  Son  to  Charterhouse. — 
Visits  Mr.  Rogers. — Appointed  Chaplain  to  High  Sheriff. — Preaches 
in  Cathedral. — Anecdote  at  Spencer  House. — Meeting  of  Clergy, 
East  Riding. — His  Petition. — Speech. — Living  of  Londesborough. — 
Goes  to  Paris. — Letter  on  receiving  Irreligious  Book. — Death  oi' 
Father. — Description  of  House  by  Friend. — Love  of  Chess  and  Sing 
ing. — Marriage  of  Youngest  Daughter. — Becomes  Canon  of  Bristol. — 
Effect  produced  at  Bristol. — History  of  Apologue,  by  Mr.  Everett. 

IT  was  about  this  time  that  an  old  lady,  Aunt  Mary  Iby 
name,  who  possessed  considerable  wealth,  suddenly  pro 
posed  to  pay  us  a  visit ;  and,  as  it  seemed,  so  much 
approved  all  she  saw  in  the  little  establishment  at  Fos- 
ton,  that  on  her  death,  the  following  year,  she  left  my 
father  a  most  unexpected  legacy.  Though  not  large,  it 

then  seemed  to  us  all  unbounded  wealth.      On  receiving 

o 

this  accession  of  fortune,  my  father  of  course  immediate 
ly  released  my  uncle  from  the  contribution  he  had  so 
kindly  made  toward  my  brother's  education.  His  next 
step  was  to  call  us  all  around  him,  saying,  "  You  must 
all  share  in  this  windfall :  so  choose  something  you 
would  like."  We  all  made  out*  selection. 

In  the  winter  of  this  year,  we  all  went  to  Edinburgh 
on  a  visit  to  Lord  Jeffrey,  after  ten  years'  absence  on 
our  side ;  and  a  most  agreeable  visit  we  had ;  for,  in 
addition  to  the  enjoyment  of  Lord  Jeffrey's  society  at 
every  stray  moment  he  could  steal  from  business,  we 
were  received  with  open  arms  by  all  our  old  Scotch 
friends  ;  and  when  they  do  open  their  arms,  there  arc 
no  people  so  kind  and  so  hospitable  as  the  Scotch. 


17  4  MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.    SYDNEY    SMITH. 

In  May,  next  year  (1822),  my  father  went  up  to  stay 
a  short  time  in  his  "brother's  house  in  town,  as  indeed 
he  usually  did  every  spring.  And  the  rush  of  invita 
tions,  and  the  struggle  for  his  society,  would  have  been 
quite  enough  to  turn  any  head  less  strong  than  his. 
Many  weeks  before  he  set  off,  invitations  used  to  come 
down  into  the  country  ;  and  I  have  known  him  engaged 
every  night  during  his  stay,  for  three  weeks  beforehand ; 
but  in  the  midst  of  all  this  dissipation  and  popularity  he 
never  forgot  his  home  and  family.  Every  morning,  at 
breakfast,  appeared  his  letter  to  my  mother,  giving  an 
account  of  his  daily  proceedings,  together  with  minute 
directions  about  his  farm  and  parish ;  not  always,  it 
must  be  admitted,  in  the  most  legible  hand.  A  family 
council  was  often  held  over  his  directions  ;  once,  so  en 
tirely  without  success,  that,  after  many  endeavors  on 
our  part  to  decipher  what  they  could  be,  as  it  seemed 
urgent,  my  mother  cut  out  the  passage  and  inclosed  it 
to  him;  he  returned  it,  saying,  "he  must  decline  ever 
reading  his  own  handwriting  four-and-twenty  hours  after 
he  had  written  it."  He  was  so  aware  of  the  badness  of 
his  handwriting,  that  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Travers,  who 
wished  to  see  one  of  his  sermons,  he  says,  "I  would 
send  it  to  you  with  pleasure,  but  my  writing  is  as  if  a 
swarm  of  ants,  escaping  from  an  ink-bottle,  had  walked 
over  a  sheet  of  paper  without  wiping  their  legs."  The 
handwriting  of  his  friend  Lord  Jeffrey  was,  if  possible, 
still  more  illegible ;  my  father  wrote  to  him,  on  receiv 
ing  one  of  his  letters,  "My  dear  Jeffrey — We  are  much 
obliged  by  your  letter,  but  should  be  still  more  so  were 
it  legible.  I  have  tried  to  read  it  from  left  to  right,  and 
Mrs.  Sydney  from  right  to  "left,  and  we  neither  of  us 
can  decipher  a  single  word  of  it." 

The  interests  of  his  villagers,  too,  were  not  neglected. 
On  one  occasion,  in  a  broiling  sun,  Avith  no  other  equi- 


MKMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  170 

page  than  his  umbrella,  he  paced  down  to  one  of  the 
public  offices  to  obtain  some  information  about  a  young 
soldier,  the  only  son  of  a  poor  laborer  and  his  wife,  in 
his  village,  who  Avere  in  a  great  state  of  anxiety  about 
him,  not  having  received  any  tidings  for  months.  He 
entered  the  office,  hot,  tired,  and  dusty,  and  I  daresay 
very  ill-dressed ;  and  proceeded  to  put  the  necessary 
(questions  to  one  of  the  young  officials,  in  all  the  splendor 
of  whisker  and  waistcoat ;  but,  after  much  delay  and 
cool  impertinence,  obtained  no  satisfactory  answer.  He 
then  said,  giving  his  card,  and  making  his  bow,  "I 
have  but  one  other  question  to  trouble  you  with,  sir,  and 
that  is  your  name ;  as  I  am  about  to  proceed  from  this 
door  to  call  on  your  master.  I  came  here,  a  country 
clergyman,  to  perform  my  duty  to  my  parish,  and  1 
shall  inform  him  how  his  servants  perform  theirs.*' 
These  words  acted  like  magic.  In  an  instant  the  youth 
stood  humbled  before  him,  "  entreating  pardon  and 
silence  ;  that  he  had  nothing  to  depend  on  but  his 
office,  and  this  would  ruin  him."  .My  father  of  course 
yielded,  but  warned  him  to  let  this  be  a  useful  lesson 
for  the  future. 

In  the  winter  of  the  following  year,  about  six  o'clock 
in  the  evening,  we  were  assembled  around  a  blazing 
fire,  waiting  for  dinner.  The  weather  had  been  un 
usually  severe,  and  the  roads  were  so  filled  by  drifts  of 
snow,  that  they  were  considered  quite  impassable.  The 
butcher  and  the  baker  even  could  hardly  make  their 
way  on  horseback  to  the  house,  and  the  front  door  was 
so  blocked  up  by  snow  as  to  be  quite  unapproachable. 
Suddenly  a  tremendous  peal  was  heard  on  the  bell :  all 
started  at  the  unwonted  sound  in  such  a  season  and  at 
such  an  hour,  and  were  lost  in  conjectures  what  it  could 
mean.  Bunch  rushed  to  the  door,  and  presently  enter 
ed  llie  room  breathless,  exclaiming,  "Please,  sir,  Lord 


176  MEMOIK   OF   THE    HEY.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

and  Lady  Makincrusli  is  com'd  in  a  coach-and-four,  and 
wants  to  stay  with  you,  but  they  can't  get  up  to  the 
front  door ! "  Who  Lord  and  Lady  Mackincrush  could 
be,  and  why  they  bestowed  themselves  upon  us,  was 
alike  a  mystery.  But  Sydney,  calling  for  a  lantern, 
sallied  forth,  and  found,  to  his  no  less  joy  than  surprise, 
his  old  friend  Sir  James  Mackintosh  and  his  daughter, 
half  buried  in  the  snow.  They  were  extracted,  warmed, 
and  welcomed,  as  such  friends  ought  to  be  ;  or  rather, 
with  such  means  as  the  little  parsonage  could  furnish. 
The  next  morning,  when  we  were  sitting  at  breakfast, 
arrived,,  to  our  infinite  amusement,  Sir  James's  letter, 
announcing  his  intended  visit,  and  asking  whether  we 
could  receive  him. 

My  father's  sketch,  in  the  Life  of  Sir  James,  shows 
his  estimate  of  this  great  man;  and  the  keen  enjoyment 
his  society  ever  afforded  him  was  enhanced  by  the  rarity 
of  their  meeting,  now  that  he  was  so  far  removed  from 
his  former  friends. 

Sir  James  Mackintosh  went  after  a  few  days  ;  leaving 
behind  not  recollections  only,  but  hat,  books,  gloves,  pa 
pers,  and  various  portions  of  his  wardrobe,  with  charac 
teristic  carelessness.  "What  a  man  that  would  be,'" 
said  my  father,  "had  he  a  particle  of  gall,  or  the  least 
knowledge  of  the  value  of  red  tape!"  As  Curran  said 
of  Grattan,  "he  would  have  governed  the  world."' 

In  1823,  having  received  a  presentation  to  the  Char 
terhouse  from  the  Archbishop  of  York,  for  his  second 
son,  Wyndham,  he  took  him  there  in  the  spring.  While 
lie  was  in  town,  Mr.  Rogers  says,  "I  had  been  ill  some 
weeks,  confined  to  my  bed.  Sydney  heard  of  it,  found 
me  out,  sat  by  my  bed,  cheered  me,  talked  to  me,  made 
me  laugh  more  than  I  ever  thought  to  have  laughed 
again.  The  next  day  a  bulletin  was  brought  to  my 
bedside,  giving  the  physician's  report  of  my  case  :  tl'.o 


MILMOIli   OF  THE    REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  177 

following  day  the  report  was  much  worse ;  the  next 
day  declaring  there  was  no  hope,  and  England  would 
have  to  mourn  over  the  loss  of  her  sweetest  poet ; 
then  I  died  amidst  weeping  friends  ;  then  came  my  fu 
neral  ;  and,  lastly,  a  sketch  of  my  character,  all  writ 
ten  by  that  pen  which  had  the  power  of  turning  every 
thing  into  sunshine  and  joy.  Sydney  never  forgot  his 
friends ! " 

In  the  course  of  the  summer  a  young  friend  came 
to  spend  a  month  with  us,  the  freshness  and  originality 
of  whose  character  both  interested  and  amused  my  fa 
ther  ;  he  chanced  on  one  occasion  to  call  her  "  a  nice  per 
son."  "Oh,  don't  call  me  'meg, 'Mr.  Sydney;  people 
only  say  that  where  they  can  say  nothing  else."  "Why  ? 
have  you  ever  reflected  what  'a  nice  person'  means?" 
"No,  Mr.  Sydney,"  said  she,  laughing,  "but  I  don't 
like  it."  "Well,  give  me  pen  and  ink;  I  will  show 
vou,"  said  my  father,  "  a 

"DEFINITION  OF    'A  NICE  PERSON.' 

"A  nice  person  is  neither  too  tall  nor  too  short,  looks 
clean  and  cheerful,  has  no  prominent  feature,  makes  no 
difficulties,  is  never  misplaced,  sits  bodkin,  is  never  fool 
ishly  affronted,  and  is  void  of  affectations. 

"  A  nice  person  helps  you  well  at  dinner,  understands 
you,  is  always  gratefully  received  by  young  and  old, 
Whig  and  Tory,  grave  and  gay. 

"  There  is  something  in  the  very  air  of  a  nice  person 
which  inspires  you  with  confidence,  makes  you  talk,  and 
talk  without  fear  of  malicious  misrepresentation  ;  you 
feel  that  you  are  reposing  upon  a  nature  which  God  lias 
made  kind,  and  created  for  the  benefit  and  happiness  of 
society.  It  has  the  effect  upon  the  mind  which  soft  air 
and  a  fine  climate  has  upon  the  body. 

"A  nice  person  is  clear  of  little,  trumpery  passions, 
n* 


173  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

acknowledges  superiority,  delights  in  talent,  shelters 
humility,  pardons  adversity,  forgives  deficiency,  re 
spects  all  men's  rights,  never  stops  the  Ibottle,  is  never 
long  and  never  wrong,  always  knows  the  day  of  the 
month,  the  name  of  every  body  at  table,  and  never  gives 
pain  to  any  human  being. 

"  If  any  body  is  wanted  for  a  party,  a  nice  person  is 
the  first  thought  of;  when  the  child  is  christened,  when 
the  daughter  is  married — all  the  joys  of  life  are  commu 
nicated  to  nice  people ;  the  hand  of  the  dying  man  is 
always  held  out  to  a  nice  person. 

"  A  nice  person  never  knocks  over  wine  or  melted 
butter,  does  not  tread  upon  the  dog's  foot,  or  molest  the 
family  cat,  eats  soup  without  noise,  laughs  in  the  right 
place,  and  has  a  watchful  and  attentive  eye." 

This  same  year,  his  eldest  son,  Douglas,  having  left 
Westminster  with  great  distinction  (and  been  elected 
Captain  of  the  College,  after  struggling  with  unusual 
difficulties),  went  in  the  autumn  to  Christ  Church,  Ox 
ford.*  My  father  mentions,  in  the  autumn  of  this  year, 

*  "  His  father  had  always  taught  him  the  Eton  grammar.  The  in 
tention  of  sending  him  to  Westminster  was  sudden.  The  change  of 
grammar  was  a  dreadful  difficulty,  only  a  fe\v  months  before  the  com 
petition,  which  was  to  admit  him  as  a  King's  scholar.  In  addition  to 
this,  a  most  severe  fever  seized  him  shortly  after  he  went  to  West 
minster,  and  for  six  weeks  kept  him  confined  to  his  bed :  but  so  eager 
was  he  for  success,  for  our  sakes,  that  even  while  keeping  his  bed 
from  fever  and  weakness,  he  ever  had  his  Westminster  grammar  un 
der  his  pillow ;  and.  too  ill  to  get  up,  he  was  incessantly  working  at 
it,  in  spite  of  all  we  could  say.  The  challenges  last  about  six  weeks ; 
there  were,  this  year,  twenty-eight  candidates,  of  whom  eight  were 
admitted ;  and  dear  Douglas  was  sixth,  to  our  inexpressible  joy ;  for 
I  verily  believe  it  would  have  broken  his  heart  had  he  failed,  so  very 
desirous  was  he,  on  this  first  occasion  that  had  occurred  in  his  young 
life,  to  repay  by  his  success  all  the  anxious  and  agitating  fears  his 
father  had  felt  about  him  for  the  future.  Having  become  a  King's 
scholar,  the  hardships  and  cruelties  he  suffered,  as  a  junior  boy,  from 
his  master,  were  such  as  at  one  time  very  nearly  to  compel  us  to  re- 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  179 

in  liis  letters,  a  most  agreeable  visit  he  made  to  Bowood, 
meeting  there  Lord  Holland,  Luttrell,  llogers,  and  some 
other  friends. 

In  1824,  my  father  took  us  for  a  short  time  to  town, 
Miss  Vernon  having  kindly  lent  us  her  house  in  Hert 
ford  Street.  We  returned  to  York  for  the  assizes,  as 
he  had  been  appointed  by  Sir  John  Johnstone  (then 
High  Sheriff)  his  chaplain ;  and  it  was  upon  this  oc 
casion  that  he  preached  in.  the  Cathedral  two  remark 
able  sermons,  upon  the  unjust  judge,  and  the  lawyer 
who  tempted  Christ.  There  was  great  curiosity  to  hear 
him,  particularly  among  the  lawyers  on  the  North 
ern  circuit,  to  most  of  whom  he  was  personally  known. 
The  cathedral  was  crowded  to  the  utmost.  I  well 
remember  the  startling  effect  on  every  one  present 
when,  after  rising  and  looking  round  with  that  calm 
dignity  so  peculiar  to  him  in  the  pulpit,  he  slowly  de 
livered,  with  his  powerful  voice  (the  two  judges  sit 
ting  immediately  opposite),  this  text:  "God  shall  smite 
tlice,  thou  whited  wall ;  for  sittest  tliou  to  judge  me 
according  to  the  law,  and  commandest  me  to  be  smit 
ten  contrary  to  the  law  ?"  From  this  opening  his 
audience  were  little  prepared  for  the  following  splen 
did  culogium  which  he  pronounced  on  the  office  of 
an  English  judge,  such  as  it  is  now  exercised  in  this 
country : 

"He  who  takes  the  office  of  a  judge,  as  it  now  exists 
in  this  country,  takes  in  his  hands  a  splendid  gem,  good 
and  glorious,  perfect  and  pure.  Shall  lie  give  it  up  mu 
tilated  ?  shall  he  mar  it  ?  shall  he  darken  it  ?  shall  it  emit 
no  light?  shall  it  be  valued  at  no  price?  shall  it  excite 

move  him  from  the.  school.  Tic  was  taken  home  for  a  short  period,  to 
recover  from  his  bruises,  and  restore  his  eye.  His  first  act,  on  becom 
ing  Captain  himself,  was  to  endeavor  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the 
juniors,  and  to  obtain  additional  comforts  for  them  from  the  liead-msis- 
ter."—  l^roni  nnj  Motlicrx  Journal. 


ISO  MEMOIK    OF  THE    KEV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

no  wonder  ?  shall  lie  find  it  a  diamond  ?  shall  he  leave 
it  a  stone  ? 

"What  should  we  say  to  the  man  who  would  will 
fully  destroy  with  fire  the  magnificent  temple  of  God  in 
which  I  am  now  preaching  ?  Far  worse  is  he  who  ruins 
the  moral  edifice  of  the  world,  which  time  and  toil,  and 
many  prayers  to  God,  and  many  sufferings  of  men  have 
reared  ;  who  puts  out  the  light  of  the  times  in  which  he 
lives,  and  leaves  us  to  wander  in  the  darkness  of  corrup 
tion  and  the  desolation  of  sin. 

"There  may  "be,  there  probably  is,  in  this  church 
some  young  man  who  may  hereafter  fill  the  office  of  an 
English  judge,  when  the  greater  part  of  those  who  hear 
me  this  day  are  dead  and  gone.  Let  him  remember  my 
words,  and  let  them  form  and  fashion  his  spirit.  He 
can  not  tell  in  what  dangerous  and  awful  times  he  may 
be  placed :  but,  as  a  mariner  looks  to  his  compass  in 
the  calm,  and  looks  to  his  compass  in  the  storm,  and 
never  keeps  his  eye  off  his  compass,  so  in  every  vicissi 
tude  of  a  judicial  life — deciding  for  the  people,  deciding 
against  the  people — protecting  the  just  rights  of  kings, 
or  restraining  their  unlawful  ambition — let  him  ever 
cling  to  that  pure,  exalted,  and  Christian  independence 
which  towers  over  the  little  motives  of  life,  which  no 
hope  of  favor  can  influence,  which  no  effort  of  power 
can  control/' 

During  one  of  his  visits  to  London,  at  a  dinner  at 
Spencer  House,  the  conversation  turned  upon  dogs. 
"Oh."  said  my  father,  "one  of  the  greatest  difficulties 
I  have  had  with  my  parishioners  has  been  on  the  sub 
ject  of  dogs."  "  How  so  ?"  said  Lord  Spencer.  "Why, 
when  I  first  went  down  into  Yorkshire,  there  had  not 
been  a  resident  clergyman  in  my  parish  for  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years.  Each  farmer  kept  a  huge  mastiff  dog, 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY    .SMITH.  181 

ranging  at  large,  and  ready  to  make  his  morning  meal 
on  clergy  or  laity,  as  best  suited  liis  particular  taste ;  I 
never  could  approach  a  cottage  in  pursuit  of  my  calling, 
"but  I  rushed  into  the  jaws  of  one  of  these  shaggy  mon 
sters.  I  scolded,  preached,  and  prayed,  without  avail ; 
so  I  determined  to  try  what  fear  for  their  pockets  might 
do.  Forthwith  appeared  in  the  county  papers  a  minute 
account  of  a  trial  of  a  farmer,  at  the  Northampton  Ses 
sions,  for  keeping  dogs  unconfined ;  where  said  farmer 
was  not  only  lined  five  pounds  and  reprimanded  Iby  the 
magistrates,  but  sentenced  to  three  months'  imprison 
ment.  The  effect  was  wonderful,  and  the  reign  of  Cer 
berus  ceased  in  the  land."  "  That  accounts,"  said  Lord 
Spencer,  "for  what  has  puzzled  me  and  Althorp  for 
many  years.  We  never  failed  to  attend  the  sessions  at 
Northampton,  and  we  never  could  find  out  how  we  had 
missed  this  remarkable  dog  case." 

In  the  year  1825,  a  meeting  of  the  clergy  of  the  dio 
cese  having  been  called  in  the  East  Riding  of  Yorkshire, 
to  petition  Parliament  against  the  emancipation  of  the 
Catholics,  was  held  at  the  Tiger  Inn,  at  Beverley.  My 
father,  though  much  disliking  such  meetings,  felt  that, 
if  they  were  called,  it  was  his  duty  to  attend ;  and,  at 
tending,  to  speak.  Two  petitions  were  sent  up  to  Par 
liament  ;  one  to  the  House  of  Lords,  to  be  presented  by 
the  Archbishop  of  York ;  the  other  to  the  Commons,  by 
Sir  Robert  Peel ;  which  were  acceded  to  unanimously 
by  all  the  clergy  present,  my  father's  being  the  only 
dissentient  voice. * 

*  li  A  Petition  drawn  up  by  the  Rev.  Sydney  Smith,  to  be  proposed  at  a 
Meeting  of  the  Clergy  at  Cleveland,  in  Yorkshire,  in  182."). 

""We,  the  undersigned,  being  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England, 
resident  within  the  Diocese  of  York,  humbly  petition  your  honorable 
House  to  take  into  your  consideration  the  state  of  those  laws  which  af 
fect  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

"We  beg  of  you  to  inquire  whether  all  those  statutes,  however  wise 


182  MEMOIll   OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

I  see,  in  the  very  interesting  Life  of  Dr.  Bathurst, 
Bishop  of  Norwich,  lately  published  by  his  daughter, 
that  at  an  advanced  age  he  stood  alone  in  the  House 
of  Lords  to  advocate  the  cause  of  religious  toleration 
against  all  the  bench  of  Bishops.  She  speaks  with 
honest  pride  of  the  just  admiration  his  courage  obtained 
from  his  friends,  and  the  gratitude  of  the  Ministry. 
But  if  this  required  such  courage  in  the  "  Good  Bish 
op"  who  came  to  that  House  with  all  the  weight  of  the 
family  connection,  whose  influence  first  placed  him  there ; 
and  invested  with  the  dignity  of  high  office ;  will  it  be 
ungraceful  in  me  to  ask,  what  courage  it  required  in  my 
father,  still  young,  under  a  Tory  administration,  poor, 
with  a  heavy  debt  still  hanging  over  him,  without  fam 
ily  or  friends  to  support  him  there,  to  come  forward 
alone,  in  opposition  to  the  whole  clergy  of  his  diocese, 

and  necessary  in  their  origin,  may  not  HOAV  (when  the  Church  of  En 
gland  is  rooted  in  the  public  affection,  and  the  title  to  the  tin-one  un 
disputed)  be  wisely  and  safely  repealed. 

"We  are  steadfast  friends  to  that  Church  of  which  we  are  members, 
and  we  wish  no  law  repealed  which  is  really  essential  to  its  safety ;  but 
we  submit  to  the  superior  wisdom  of  your  honorable  House,  whether 
that  Church  is  not  sufficiently  protected  by  its  antiquity,  by  its  learning, 
by  its  piety,  and  by  that  moderate  tenor  which  it  knows  so  well  how  to 
preserve  amidst  the  opposite  excesses  of  mankind — the  indifference  of 
one  age,  and  the  fanaticism  of  another. 

"It  is  our  earnest  hope  that  any  indulgence  you  might  otherwise 
think  it  expedient  to  extend  to  the  Catholic  subjects  of  this  realm  may 
not  be  prevented  by  the  intemperate  conduct  of  some  few  members  of 
that  persuasion ;  that  in  the  great  business  of  framing  a  lasting  relig 
ious  peace  for  these  kingdoms,  the  extravagance  of  over-heated  minds, 
or  the  studied  insolence  of  men  who  intend  mischief,  may  be  equally 
overlooked. 

"If  your  honorable  House  should  in  your  wisdom  determine  that  all 
these  laws  which  are  enacted  against  the  Roman  Catholics  can  not  with 
safety  and  advantage  be  repealed,  we  then  venture  to  express  a  hope 
that  such  disqualifying  laws  alone  will  be  suffered  to  remain,  which  you 
consider  to  be  clearlv  required  for  the  good  of  the  Church  and  State. 
"We  feel  the  blessing*of  our  own  religious  liberty,  and  we  think  it  a  se 
rious  duty  to  extend  it  to  others,  in  every  degree  which  sound  discre 
tion  will  permit." 


MEMOIR   OF   THE    KEY.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  183 

to  advocate  the  same  cause  ?  *  In  this  speech  he  speaks 
of  the  advance  the  Catholic  question  had  made  during 
the  session,  from  the  astonishment  of  the  House  at  the 
union  of  the  Irish  Catholics  ;  and  then,  alluding  to  the 
effects  these  laws  were  producing  in  Ireland,  he  says, 
"We  preach  to  our  congregations  that  a  tree  is  known 
by  its  fruits.  What  has  your  system  done  for  Ireland  ? 
Her  children,  safe  under  no  law,  live  in  the  very  shadow 
of  death.  Has  it  made  Ireland  rich  ?  has  it  made  Ire 
land  loyal  ?  has  it  made  Ireland  free  ?  has  it  made  Ire 
land  happy  ?  From  the  principles  of  this  system,  from 
the  cruelty  of  these  laws,  I  turn,  and  turn  with  the  hom 
age  of  my  whole  heart,  to  the  memorable  proclamation 
which  the  monarch  of  these  realms  has  lately  made  to 
his  dominions  of  Hanover,  '  That  no  man  should  be 
subjected  to  civil  incapacities  on  account  of  religious 
opinioJis.'  This  sentiment  in  the  mouth  of  a  king  de 
serves,  more  than  all  glories  and  victories,  the  notice  of 
the  historian  who  is  destined  to  tell  to  future  ages  the 
deeds  of  the  English  people.  I  hope  he  will  lavish  on 
it  every  gem  which  glitters  in  the  cabinet  of  genius  ;  and 
so  uphold  it  to  the  world,  that  it  will  be  remembered 
when  "Waterloo  is  forgotten,  and  when  the  fall  of  Paris 
is  blotted  out  from  the  memory  of  man." 

About  this  period  a  very  considerable  and  most  unex 
pected  addition  was  made  to  my  father's  income  by  the 
kind  intercession  and  exertion  of  our  friends  at  Castle 
Howard,  who  obtained  from  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  the 
living  of  Londcsborough  (at  no  great  distance  from  Fos- 
ton,  aiiji  then  tenable  with  it),  for  him  to  hold  till  the 
Duke's  nephew,  Mr.  Howard,  should  be  of  age  to  take  it. 
This,  together  with  Aunt  Mary's  legacy,  put  him,  for  the 

*  I  hope  I  shall  not  l>e  understood  as  wishing  to  depreciate  one  whom 
all  good  men  must  admire,  hut  as  only  desirous  of  doing  justice  to  my 
father. 


184  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

first  time  in  his  life,  tolerably  at  his  ease,  as  he  had  by 
this  time  liquidated  many  of  the  first  heavy  expenses  en 
tailed  upon  him  by  building.  But  the  debt  to  Queen 
Anne's  Bounty,  raised  on  the  value  of  the  living,  re 
mained,  and  had  up  to  this  time  obliged  us  to  exercise 
the  most  rigid  economy.  These  debts  had  weighed 
heavily  on  my  father's  spirits  ;  giving  him,  as  my  moth 
er  has  often  told  me,  sleepless  nights  of  anxiety  as  to 
the  future  provision  for  his  children  ;  and  I  have  not  un- 
irequently  seen  him  in  an  evening,  when  bill  after  bill 
poured  in,  as  he  was  sitting  at  his  desk  (carefully  exam 
ining  them,  and  gradually  paying  them  off),  quite  over 
come  by  the  feeling  of  the  debt  hanging  over  him,  cover 
his  face  in  his  hands,  and  exclaim,  "Ah!  I  see,  I  shall 
end  my  old  age  in  a  gaol  I" 

This  was  the  more  striking  from  one  the  buoyancy  of 
whose  spirits  usually  rose  above  all  difficulties.  It  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  us  ;  and  I  remember  many  little- 
family  councils,  to  sec  if  it  were  not  possible  to  econo 
mize  in  something  more,  and  lessen  our  daily  expenses 
to  assist  him. 

The  following  year  he  accomplished  what  he  had  long- 
wished  to  do,  but  had  never  been  able  to  afford — a  visit 
to  Paris ;  where  he  found  Lord  and  Lady  Holland,  and 
many  other  English  friends,  and  was  introduced  by  them 
to  some  of  the  best  French  society. 

He  has  given  his  impressions  of  Paris  in  his  letters 
to  my  mother.  These  Paris  letters  are,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  almost  the  only  ones  to  her  which  have  been  pre 
served  ;  for  though,  when  absent,  he  wrote  to  my  moth 
er  regularly  every  day,  yet  the  interesting  matter  they 
contained  was  so  mixed  up  with  directions  and  home 
details,  that  they  were  not  considered  of  permanent 
value.  The  only  purchase  he  made  for  himself  in  Paris, 
though  he  brought  us  all  a  gift,  was  a  huge  seal,  con- 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  185 

taining  the  arms  of  a  peer  of  France,  which  he  met  with 
in  a  broker's  shop,  and  "bought  for  four  francs  ;  and 
which  he  declared  should  henceforth  be  the  arms  of  his 
"branch  of  the  Smith  family.  From  all  he  witnessed  in 
Paris,  and  seeing  the  little  wisdom  the  Bourbons  seemed 
to  have  gained  from  misfortune,  he  predicted  the  revolu 
tion  which  took  place  so  few  years  afterward.  He  re 
newed  there  his  early  acquaintance  with  two  remarkable 
men,  Talleyrand  and  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  of  whom  he  saw 
a  good  deal. 

After  his  return  we  had  a  visit  from  Lord  Jeffrey ; 
our  old  and  valued  friend  Mr.  Whisliaw,  the  Hannibal 
of  his  suppers ;  and  Mr.  John  Romilly,  now  Master  of 
Ihe  Rolls. 

My  father,  who,  however  he  might  indulge  in  attacks 
on  what  he  thought  the  shortcomings  of  the  Church, 
never  for  a  moment  tolerated  any  thing  approaching  to 
irreligion,  even  in  his  most  private  transactions,  received 
about  this  time  a  work  of  irreligious  tendency  from  the 
house  of  a  considerable  publisher  in  London,  who  was 
in  the  habit  of  occasionally  presenting  him  with  books. 
Many  men  might  have  passed  this  over  as  of  little  im 
portance  ;  but  he  felt  that  nothing  was  unimportant  that 
had  reference  to  such  a  subject.  These  feelings  were 
strongly  evinced  on  various  occasions,  in  some  of  his 
early  letters  to  Jeffrey,  where  he  not  only  deprecates 
the  injury  to  the  Edinburgh  Review  by  the  admission 
of  irreligious  opinions ;  but  declares  his  determination, 
if  this  were  not  avoided,  of  separating  himself  from  a 
work  of  which  he  had  felt  hitherto  so  justly  proud.  He 
writes  to  Jeffrey,  saying,  "I  hear  witli  sorrow  from 
Elmsley,  that  a  very  anti-christian  article  has  crept  into 

the  last   number   of  the   Edinburgh  Review.  .  .  .  You 

o 

must  be  thoroughly  aware  that  the  rumor  of  infidelity 
decides  not  only  the  reputation,  but  the  existence  of  the 


ISO  MEMOIR  OF  THE  1JEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

Beview.  I  am  extremely  sony,  too,  on  my  own  account, 
because  those  who  wish  it  to  have  been  written  by  me, 
will  say  it  was  so."  And  again,  in  another  letter:  "I 
must  beg  the  favor  of  you  to  be  explicit  011  one  point. 
Do  you  mean  to  take  care  that  the  Review  shall  not 
profess  infidel  principles  ?  Unless  this  is  the  case,  I 
must  absolutely  give  up  all  connection  with  it."  On 
the  occasion  just  alluded  to,  my  father  immediately 
wrote  to  the  publisher,  saying,  "that  he  could  not  be 
aware  that  he  had  sent  him  a  work  unfit  to  be  sent  to  a 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  or,  indeed,  of  any 
church  ;"  and  after  counselling  him  against  such  publica 
tions,  even,  with  a  view  to  mere  worldly  interests,  he 
adds,  "  I  hate  the  insolence,  persecution,  and  intolerance, 
which  so  often  pass  under  the  name  of  religion,  and,  as 
you  know,  have  fought  against  them  ;  but  I  have  an 
unaffected  horror  of  irreligion  and  impiety,  and  every 
principle  of  suspicion  and  fear  would  be  excited  in  me 
by  a  man  who  professed  himself  an  infidel." 

In  1827  the  Junction  Ministry  was  formed,  which 
combined  a  portion  of  the  Whigs  with  the  remains  of 
Mr.  Canning's  party.  My  father,  knowing  that  there 
were  in  this  Ministry  many  upon  whom  he  had  just 
claims,  finding  his  family  now  grown  up,  his  son  about 
to  enter  on  an  expensive  profession,*  and  aware  that 
his  clerical  income  would  shortly  be  diminished  to  nearly 
one-third  by  the  resignation  of  the  living  of  Londes- 
borough  to  Mr.  Howard,  felt  it  due  to  himself  and  his 
family  to  make  some  application  for  preferment  to  his 
friends.  He  wrote,  therefore,  to  one  or  two  of  those  in 
the  Ministry,  and  to  his  friend  Lord  Brougham  likewise, 
stating  to  him  his  hopes  and  wishes,  and  requesting  his 
influence  with  those  in  power.  From  Lord  Brougham 
I  have  reason  to  believe  he  received  the  answer  he  had 

*  lie  was  destined  for  the  Law. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  1ST 

a  right  to  expect  from  so  very  old  a  friend.  From  one 
of  the  others  he  received  an  answer  politely  deferring 
his  promises  to  some  future  period,  as  I  presume  from 
the  following  reply,  which  is  so  very  characteristic  of 
my  father,  and  so  very  unlike  the  usual  mode  of  address 
from  an  expectant  clergyman  to  a  minister  of  state,  that 
I  shall  give  it — though  without  a  name,  as  I  have  not 
asked  permission  to  insert  it : 

"  20,  SAVILLI;  Row. 

"  I  am  much  obliged  by  your  polite  letter.  You  ap 
peal  to  my  good-nature  to  prevent  me  from  considering 
your  letter  as  a  decent  method  of  putting  me  oif :  your 
appeal,  I  assure  you,  is  not  made  in  vain.  I  do  not 
think  you  mean  to  put  me  oft*;  because  I  am  the  most 
prominent,  and  was  for  a  long  time  the  only  clerical 
advocate  of  that  question,  by  the  proper  arrangement 
of  which  you  believe  the  happiness  and  safety  of  the 
country  would  be  materially  improved.  I  do  not  believe 
you  mean  to  put  me  oft";  because,  in  giving  me  some 
promotion,  you  will  teach  the  clergy,  from  whose  timid 
ity  you  have  every  thing  to  apprehend,  and  whoso  in 
fluence  upon  the  people  you  can  not  doubt,  that  they 
may,  under  your  Government,  obey  the  dictates  of  their 
consciences  without  sacrificing  the  emoluments  of  their 
profession.  I  do  not  think  you  mean  to  put  me  off; 
because,  in  the  conscientious  administration  of  that  pa 
tronage  with  which  you  are  intrusted,  I  think  it  will 
occur  to  you  that  something  is  due  to  a  person  who,  in 
stead  of  basely  chiming  in  with  the  bad  passions  of  the 
multitude,  lias  dedicated  some  talent  and  some  activity 
to  soften  religious  hatreds,  and  to  make  men  less  violent 
and  less  foolish  than  ho  found  them. 

"I  am,  sincerely  yours, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 


188  MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

We  received  a  visit  in  the  autumn  from  a  clergyman, 
who,  though  a  comparatively  recent  friend,  was  one  ever 
highly  valued  "by  my  father,  and  who  was  afterward 
promoted  to  the  bench.  A  letter  he  wrote  on  this  occa 
sion,  descriptive  of  his  visit,  which  has  Ibeen  most  kindly 
sent  me  by  his  widow,  is  so  graphic,  and  it  is  so  flatter 
ing  to  my  father  that  such  a  letter  should  have  been 
written  by  such  a  man,  that  I  can  not  resist  inserting  it 
here,  though  it  speaks  of  tilings  some  of  which  have  been 
alluded  to  before : 

"A  man's  character  is  probably  more  faithfully  repre 
sented  in  the  arrangements  of  his  home  than  in  any- 
other  point ;  and  Foston  is  a  fac-simile  of  its  master's 
mind,  from  first  to  last.  He  had  no  architect,  but  I 
question  whether  a  more  compact,  convenient  house 
could  well  be  imagined.  In  the  midst  of  a  field,  com 
manding  no  very  attractive  view,  he  has  contrived  to 
give  it  an  air  of  snugness  and  comfort,  and  its  internal 
arrangements  are  perfect.  The  drawing-room  is  the 
color  you  covet,  the  genuine  chromium,  with  a  sort  of 
yellow  flowering  pattern.  It  is  exquisitely  filled  with 
irregular  regularities — tables,  books,  chairs,  Indian  ward 
robes  ;  every  thing  finished  in  thorough  taste,  without 
the  slightest  reference  to  smartness  or  useless  finery ;  and 
his  inventive  genius  appears  in  every  corner;  his  fires 
arc  blown  into  brightness  by  shadracfis,  tubes  furnished 
Avith  air  from  without,  opening  into  the  centre  of  the  fire  ; 
his  poker,  tongs,  and  shovel  are  secured  from  felling  with 
that  horrid  crash  which  is  so  destructive  to  the  nerves 
and  temper. 

"  His  own  study  has  no  appearance  of  comfort ;  but 
as  he  reads  and  writes  in  his  family  circle,  in  spite 
of  talking  and  other  interruptions,  this  is  of  less  con 
sequence.  In  other  respects  it  lias  its  attractions  : 


MEMOIR  OF   THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  189 

there,  for  instance,  he  keeps  his  rheumatic  armor,  all 
of  which  he  displayed  out  of  a  large  bag,  giving  me 
an  illustrated  lecture  upon  each  component  part.  Fan 
cy  him  in  a  fit  of  rheumatism,  his  legs  in  two  nar 
row  buckets,  which  he  calls  his  jack-boots  ;  round  the 
throat  a  hollow  tin  collar ;  over  each  shoulder  a  large 
tin  thing  like  a  shoulder  of  mutton ;  on  his  head  a  hol 
low  tin  helmet,  all  filled  with  hot  water ;  and  fancy 
him  expatiating  upon  each  and  all  of  them  with  ultra- 
energy. 

"  His  bedrooms  are  counterparts  of  the  lower  rooms ; 
in  mine  there  were  twenty-eight  large  Piranesi  prints  of 
ancient  Rome,  mounted  just  as  we  do  ours,  but  without 
frames,  and,  indeed,  in  every  vacant  part  of  the  house  he 
has  them  hung  up. 

"  His  store-room  is  more  like  that  of  an  Indiaman  than 
any  thing  else,  containing  such  a  complete  and  well-as 
sorted  portion  of  every  possible  want  or  wish  in  a  coun 
try  establishment. 

"The  same  spirit  prevails  in  his  garden  and  farm: 
contrivance  and  singularity  in  every  hole  and  corner. 

"'What,  in  the  name  of  wonder,  is  that  skeleton 
sort  of  machine  in  the  middle  of  your  field ?'  'Oh, 
that  is  my  universal  Scratcher ;  a  framework  so  con 
trived,  that  every  animal,  from  a  lamb  to  a  bullock, 
can  rub  and  scratch  itself  with  the  greatest  facility  and 
luxury.' 

"I  arrived  there  on  Saturday  evening,  walking  from 
York,  by  which  I  contrived  to  lose  my  way,  and  take 
possession  of  another  man's  home  and  drawing-room  fire 
side  for  some  time  before  the  host  appeared,  and  the 
mistake  was  discovered. 

"  On  Sunday  we  prepared  for  church  ;  he  was  hoarse, 
so  I  was  to  read  ;  against  preaching  I  had  provided 
by  having  no  sermon.  Good  heavens !  what  a  set- 


190  MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

out !  The  family  chariot,  which  he  calls  the  Immor 
tal,  from  having  been  altered  and  repaired  in  every 
possible  way — the  last  novelty,  a  lining  of  green  cloth, 
worked  and  fitted  by  the  village  tailor — appeared  at 
the  door,  with  a  pair  of  shafts  substituted  for  the 
pole,  in  which  shafts  stood  one  of  his  cart-horses,  with 
the  regular  cart  harness,  and  a  driver  by  its  side.  In 
the  inside  the  ladies  were  seated :  on  the  dicky  be 
hind  I  mounted  with  him ;  but  his  servant  having 
placed  the  cushions  without  first  putting  in  the  wooden 
board,  on  sitting  down,  we  sank  through,  to  his  great 
amusement.  These  preliminaries  being  adjusted,  we 
set  out. 

"  The  church  resembles  a  barn  more  than  any  thing- 
else,  in  size  and  shape ;  though,  from  two  old  Saxon 
doors,  it  shows  claim  to  higher  antiquity  than  most 
others.  About  fifty  people  were  assembled ;  I  enter 
ed  the  reading-desk ;  he  followed  the  prayers  with  a 
plain,  sound  sermon  upon  the  duty  of  forgiving  inju 
ries,  but  in  manner  and  voice  clearly  proving  that  he 
felt  what  he  said,  and  meant  that  others  should  feel  it 
too. 

"His  domestic  establishment  is  on  a  par  witli  the 
rest :  his  head  servant  is  his  carpenter,  and  never  ap 
pears  excepting  on  company  days.  We  were  waited 
upon  by  his  usual  corps  doinestique,  one  little  girl,  about 
fourteen  years  of  age  ;  named,  I  believe,  Mary  or  Fanny, 
but  invariably  called  by  them  Bunch.  "With  the  most 
immovable  gravity  she  stands  before  him  when  he  gives 
his  orders,  the  answers  to  which  he  makes  her  repeat 
verbatim,  to  insure  accuracy. 

"Not  to  lose  time,  he  farms  with  a  tremendous  speak 
ing-trumpet  from  his  door ;  a  proper  companion  for 
which  machine  is  a  telescope,  slung  in  leather,  for  observ 
ing  what  they  are  doing. 


MKMOlli   OF  THE   REV.   SVDJSEV   SMITH.  1'jl 

"  On  Monday  came  Lady  H.  Hall,  licr  two  daugh 
ters  and  her  two  sons ;  the  latter,  Captain  13.  Hall, 
a  rara  avis  I  have  long  wished  to  see;  and  Peter 
Tytler,  son  (is  he  not  ?)  to  the  author.  What  a  charm 
there  is  in  good  society  and  well-informed  people !  what 
would  you  not  have  given  to  have  heard  the  mass  of 
wit,  sense,  anecdote,  and  instruction  that  flowed  inces 
santly  ! ?' 

The  equipage  alluded  to  in  this  letter  requires  a  little 
explanation.  Our  house  was  above  a  mile  from  the  lit 
tle  church,  with  roads  to  it  of  the  stiffest  and  deepest 
clay,  hardly  passable  to  women  in  wet  weather  or 
winter,  and  my  mother  was  in  delicate  health.  We 
could  not  afford  horses  ;  so  my  father,  never  ashamed 
of  showing  his  poverty  when  he  thought  it  right,  hit 
upon  this  rude  and  cheap  device,  to  enable  his  family 
to  accompany  him  in  all  weathers  to  church.  Ludi 
crous  as  this  description  may  appear  to  the  reader, 
yet  the  proprieties  of  life  were  attended  to.  The  horse, 
the  harness,  the  Immortal,  and  the  carter,  all  wore  their 
best  and  cleanest  Sunday  garb,  and  I  think  they  ex 
cited  respect  rather  than  ridicule  amidst  his  humble  con 
gregation. 

A  word,  too,  ought  to  be  said  in  explanation  of  the 
drawing-room  furniture  alluded  to  in  this  letter  with  so 
much,  praise.  It  consisted  of  a  few  relics  preserved  from 
the  valuable  Indian  furniture  left  by  my  grandmother, 
the  greater  part  of  which  had  been  parted  with  by  my 
mother  for  our  benefit.  All  the  rest  was  plain  enough, 
though  still  in  good  taste.  Economy,  in  the  estimation 
of  common  minds,  often  means  the  absence  of  all  taste 
and  comfort ;  my  father  had  the  rare  art  to  combine  it 
with  both.  For  instance,  he  found  it  added  much  to 
the  expense  of  building  to  have  high  walls;  he  there- 


11T2  MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

fore  threw  the  whole  space  of  the  roof  into  his  "bedrooms, 
coved  the  ceilings  and  papered  them,  and  thus  they  were 
all  airy,  gay,  cheap,  and  pretty.  Cornices  he  found  ex 
pensive  ;  so  not  one  in  the  house,  but  the  paper  border, 
thrown  on  the  ceiling  with  a  line  of  shade  under  it. 
This  relieved  the  eye,  and  atoned  for  their  absence. 
Marble  chimney-pieces  were  too  dear  ;  so  he  hunted  out 
a  cheap,  warm-looking  Portland  stone,  had  them  cut 
after  his  own  model,  and  the  result  was  to  produce  some 
of  the  most  cheerful,  comfortable-looking  fireplaces  I  re 
member,  for  as  many  shillings  as  the  marble  ones  would 
have  cost  him  pounds. 

After  my  father  became  rich,  at  the  end  of  life,  he 
amusingly  alludes,  in  one  of  his  letters,  to  the  joy  my 
mother  would  feel  on  finding  he  had  put  up  marble 
chimney-pieces  in  his  town-house.* 

In  his  youth  my  father  had  been  very  fond  of  the 
game  of  chess,  but  had  left  it  off  for  many  years.  He 
suddenly  took  it  into  his  head  to  resume  it  this  winter, 
and  selected  me,  faute  de  mieux,  as  his  antagonist. 
His  mode  of  play  was  very  characteristic — bold,  rapid 
attack,  without  a  moment's  pause  or  indecision,  which 
I  suspect  would  have  exposed  him  to  danger  from  a 
more  experienced  adversary ;  but  as  it  was,  with  a  pro 
found  contempt  for  my  skill,  promising  me  a  shilling  if 
I  beat  him,  he  sat  down  with  a  book  in  his  hand,  looked 
up  for  an  instant,  made  a  move,  and  beat  me  regularly 
every  night  all  through  the  winter.  At  last  I  won  my 
shilling,  but  lost  my  playfellow ;  he  challenged  me  no 
more. 

My  father  was  very  fond  of  singing,  but  rather  slow 
in  learning  a  song,  though  when  once  he  had  accom 
plished  it,  he  sang  it  very  correctly.  As  he  never  tired 
of  his  old  friends,  and  had  always  some  new  one  on  the 
*  See  Letter  to  Mrs.  Holland  in  the  Correspondence. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  l'J3 

stocks,  there  was  a  tolerable  variety  of  songs  to  select 
from  ;  and,  with  my  mother's  beautiful  accompaniment 
(she  was  a  very  accomplished  musician)  and  his  own 
really  fine  voice,  our  trios  succeeded  in  pleasing  him  so 
much,  that  he  would  often  encore  himself.  He  was  so 
perfectly  natural,  that  though  I  think  (and  I  have  heard 
many  people  remark  it)  the  general  tendency  of  his  con 
versation  was  to  underrate  himself,  yet  whenever  he  was 
particularly  pleased  or  satisfied  with  any  thing  he  had 
said  or  done,  he  would  say  so  as  frankly  as  if  he  had 
been  speaking  of  another  person.  "There  is  one  talent 
I  think  I  have  to  a  remarkable  degree,"  I  have  heard 
him  say  :  "  there  arc  substances  in  nature  called  amal 
gams,  whose  property  is  to  combine  incongruous  mate 
rials  ;  now  I  am  a  moral  amalgam,  and  have  a  peculiar 
talent  for  mixing  up  human  materials  in  society,  how 
ever  repellent  their  natures."  And  certainly  I  have  seen 
a  party,  composed  of  materials  as  ill-assorted  as  the  in 
dividuals  of  the  "happy  family"  in  Trafalgar  Square, 
drawn  out  and  attracted  together  by  the  charm  of  his 
manner,  till  at  last  you  would  have  believed  they  had 
been  bom  for  one  another. 

On  the  first  of  January,  1828,  his  youngest  daughter, 
Emily,  was  married  by  the  Archbishop  of  York  to  Mr. 
Hibbert,  in  the  little  barn  church  before  mentioned. 
And  on  the  24th  of  the  same  month  Lord  Lyndhurst, 
then  Chancellor,  had  the  real  friendship  and  courage  to 
brave  the  opinions  and  opposition  of  his  own  party ; 
and,  though  diifering  entirely  from  my  father  in  politics, 
from  private  friendship  and  the  respect  he  had  for  his 
character  and  talents,  to  bestow  on  him  a  stall  which 
was  then  vacant  at  Bristol — two  interesting  family 
events  coming  closely  upon  each  other. 

For  this  promotion  he  always  felt  deeply  grateful  to 
Lord  Lyndhurst,  as  it  was  of  the  greatest  importance 
VOL.  I.— I 


194  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

to  him ;  less  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view  (as,  though 
rendering  permanent  what  was  before  temporary,  it 
rather  diminished  than  increased  his  previous  income), 
than  from  breaking  that  spell  which  had  hitherto  kept 
him  down  in  his  profession,  and  enabling  him  to  show 
the  world  how  well  he  could  fulfill  its  duties,  wherever 
placed.  And  this  was  strikingly  exemplified  at  Bristol, 
where  he  arrived  with  a  strong  prejudice  felt  not  only 
against  himself  by  a  large  party,  but  against  the  Church 
\  generally ;  Bristol  being  full  of  Dissenters,  and  the 
'  cathedral  almost  deserted  at  the  time  of  his  arrival. 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  curiosity  excited  to  hear  what 
line  he  would  take. 

He  commenced  his  duties  by  preaching  a  sermon  on 

the  5th  of  November,  before  the  Mayor  and  Corporation, 

who  came  expecting  to  hear  the  usual  attack  on  Catho- 

i  lies  made  on  these  occasions,  and  were  much  startled 

I  and  astonished  at  hearing  religious  toleration  preached 

from  the  pulpit  of  their  cathedral,  and  from  the  lips  of 

a  dignitary  of  the  Church.     This  letter,  sent  to  me  by 

Lord   Hatherton,    gives   my   father's    account   of  what 

passed : 

"  LOWER  COLLEGE  GREEN,  BRISTOL, 

"November  7,  1828. 

"Mr  DEAR  LITTLETON, 

"Many  thanks  for  your  game,  and  for  your  enter 
taining  and  interesting  letter  from  Ireland.  I  direct  to 
your  country  place,  not  knowing  exactly  where  you  will 
be,  and  presuming  Mrs.  Littleton  will  know.  Putting 
all  things  together,  I  think  something  will  be  done. 
The  letter  from  the  three  foolish  noblemen,  the  failure 
of  Penenden-heath  to  excite  a  general  and  tumultuous 
feeling,  are  all  very  favorable.  I  share  in  your  admira 
tion  of  Lord  Anglesey's  administration ;  I  have  reason 
to  believe  Ministers  are  a  little  dissatisfied  with  his  dis- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  1«J5 

position  to  oratory,   which  is  thought  undignified  and 
rash  in  a  Vice-King. 

"At  Bristol,  on  the  5th  of  November,  I  gave  the 
Mayor  and  Corporation  (the  most  Protestant  Mayor  and 
Corporation  in  England)  such  a  dose  of  toleration,  as 
shall  last  them  for  many  a  year.  A  deputation  of  pro- 
Popery  papers  waited  on  me  to-day  to  print,  but  I  de 
clined.  I  told  the  Corporation,  at  the  end  of  my  ser 
mon,  that  beautiful  rabinnical  story  quoted  by  Jeremy 
Taylor,  'As  Abraham  was  sitting  at  the  door  of  his 
tent,'  etc.,  ctc.j  which,  by-the-by,  would  make  a  charm 
ing  and  useful  placard  against  the  bigoted. 

"Be  assured  I  shall  make  a  discreet  use  of  the  in 
telligence  you  give  me,  and  compromise  you  in.  no 
thing. 

"Remember  me,  if  you  please,  to  Wilmot  Horton 
when  you  write ;  I  like  him  very  much,  and  take  a  sin 
cere  interest  in  his  welfare. 

"Ever  yours,  dear  Littleton,  very  sincerely, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

I  have  heard  that  this  sermon  occasioned  an  immense 
sensation  at  the  time,  "  and  the  cathedral,  from  that 
period,  whenever  he  was  to  preach  (though  previously 
almost  deserted),  was  filled  to  suffocation.  A  crowd 
collected  round  the  doors  long  before  they  were  opened, 
and  the  heads  of  the  standers  in  the  aisle  were  so  thick 
set  you  could  not  have  thrust  in  another ;  and  I  saw 
the  men  holding  up  their  hats  above  their  heads,  that 
they  might  not  be  crushed  by  the  pressure." 

"lie  preached,"  says  an  eye-witness,  "finely  and 
bravely  on  this  occasion,  in  direct  opposition  to  the 
principles  and  prejudices  of  the  persons  in  authority 
present ;  and  ended  by  that  beautiful  apologue  from 
Jeremy  Taylor,  illustrating  Charity  and  Toleration,  where 


1'Jli  MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY,   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

Abraham,  rising  in  wrath  to  put  the  wayfaring  man  forth 
from  his  tent  for  refusing  to  worship  the  Lord  his  God,* 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  was  heard  in  the  tent,  saying, 
'  Abraham !  Abraham !  have  I  borne  with  this  man  for 
threescore  years  and  ten,  and  canst  not  thou  bear  with 
him  for  one  hour  ?'  " 

"And  yet,"  says  the  same  eye-witness  of  whom  I 
have  before  spoken,  "  never  did  any  body  to  my  mind 
look  more  like  a  High  Churchman,  as  he  walked  up  the 
aisle  to  the  altar — there  was  an  air  of  so  much  proud 
dignity  in  his  appearance ;  and  when  I  saw  him  after 
ward  more  intimately  in  private  life,  I  became  aware  he 
had  a  lofty,  brave  soul,  with  an  intense  contempt  for 
every  thing  that  was  mean,  base,  or  truckling." 

The  following  letter  from  Mr.  Everett  gives  some  in 
teresting  information  on  this  remarkable  apologue,  be 
fore  alluded  to : 

*  Extract  from  the  Liberty  of  Prophesying,  by  Jeremy  Taylor,  D.D., 
eel.  1657,  p.  606: 

§  22.  "  I  end  with  a  story  which  I  find  in  the  Jew's1  Books.  When 
Abraham  sat  at  his  tent-door,  according  to  his  custom,  waiting  to  en 
tertain  strangers,  he  espied  an  old  man  stooping  and  leaning  011  his 
staffe,  weary  with  age  and  travelle,  coming  toward  him,  who  was  an 
hundred  years  of  age ;  he  received  him  kindly,  washed  his  feet,  pro 
vided  slipper,  caused  him  to  sit  down ;  but  observing  that  the  old  man 
eat  and  prayed  not,  nor  begged  for  a  blessing  on  his  meat,  asked  him, 
why  he  did  not  worship  the  God  of  heaven  ?  The  old  man  told  him 
that  he  worshiped  the  fire  only,  and  acknowledged  no  other  God :  at 
which  answer  Abraham  grew  so  zealously  angry,  that  he  thrust  the  old 
man  out  of  his  tent,  and  exposed  him  to  all  the  evils  of  the  night  and 
an  unguarded  condition.  When  the  old  man  was  gone,  God  called  to 
him  and  asked  him  where  the  stranger  was ;  he  replied,  '  I  thrust  him 
away  because  he  did  not  worship  thee ;'  God  answered  him,  '  I  have 
suffered  him  these  hundred  years,  although  he  dishonored  me,  and 
couldst  not  thou  endure  him  one  night,  when  he  gave  thee  no  trouble  ?' 
Upon  this,  saith  the  story,  Abraham  fetcht  him  back  again,  and  gave 
him  hospitable  entertainment  and  wise  instruction.  Go  thou  and  do 
likewise,  and /thy  charity  will  be  rewarded  by  the  God  of  Abraham." 


1  Gentius,  the  Latin  translator  of  Saadi  at  Amsterdam,  was  that  Jew,  as  appears  by 
its  being  copied  into  Taylor's  second  edition,  subsequent  to  its  publication  at  Amster 
dam  in  1651. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNLx    SMITH.  197 

"  CAMBRIDCJK,  l&th  September,  1848. 

"Mr  DEAR  MRS.  SMITH, 

"  I  duly  received,  a  sliort  time  since,  your  very  inter 
esting  letter  of  the  7tli  of  July,  with  the  copy  of  Mr. 
Smith's  speech,  so  kindly  sent  by  you,  and  the  memo 
randum  relative  to  the  Parable  011  Persecution.  The 
speech,  like  every  thing  from  the  same  source,  breathes 
a  spirit  of  noble  liberality  and  sound  sense,  which  can 
not  be  too  highly  praised.  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  you 
for  giving  me  the  opportunity  of  adding  it  to  the  collec 
tion  of  his  works. 

"  The  Parable  on  Persecution  is  one  of  the  most  curi 
ous  topics  in  literary  history.  It  has  often  been  made 
the  foundation  of  a  charge  of  plagiarism  against  Dr. 
Franklin,  but,  as  I  think,  without  foundation.  In  its 
modern  form,  it  was  first  published  by  Lord  Kames,  in 
1774.  lie  says,  4  It  was  communicated  to  me  by  Dr. 
Franklin  of  Philadelphia;'  but  he  does  not  say  that  Dr. 
F.  claimed  the  authorship  of  it.  It  was  not  long  after 
inserted  in  a  small  collection  of  Dr.  Franklin's  miscel 
laneous  writings,  published  by  Mr.  B.  Yaughan  (a  gen 
tleman  recollected  by  Lord  Lansdowne)  in  London.  Mr. 
Yaughan  took  it  from  Lord  Kames's  work.  In  1788  it 
was  traced  to  its  source  in  Gcntius's  preface ;  and  Dr. 
Franklin  having  been  then  charged  with,  plagiarism, 
some  friend  well  acquainted  with  his  habits  vindicated 
him  in  the  same  work,  the  'Repository,'  in  which  the 
charge  was  made.  These,  and  some  other  interesting 
facts,  are  given  in  the  new  edition  (Mr.  Sparks's)  of 
Franklin's  works,  vol.  ii.  p.  118,  which,  with  the  note 
to  Bishop  Ileber's  Life  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  in  the  first 
volume  of  the  works,  p.  3G5,  contains,  I  believe,  all 
that  is  known  on  the  subject.  I  see  one  slight  mistake 
in  this  learned  note:  it  states  that  the  famous  parable 


198  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

did  not  appear  in  the  first  edition  of  the  '  Liberty  of 
Prophesying,'  which  was  published  in  1647,  but  in  the 
second,  which  was  printed  in  1657  ;  the  work  of  Gen- 
tius  having  appeared  in  the  interval.  I  have  before  me 
a  volume  which  purports  to  be  the  second  edition  of  the 
'  Liberty  of  Prophesying,'  published  in  London  in  1702, 
and  not  containing  the  parable,  but  this  is  quite  imma 
terial. 

"I  lean  a  little  to  the  opinion,  that  Bishop  Taylor 
may  have  taken  it  from  some  Jewish  book  not  yet  dis 
covered.  There  is  no  reason  why,  if  he  quoted  Gentius, 
he  should  not  have  named  him.  It  appears  from  Bishop 
Heber's  learned  note,  that  a  Jewish  author,  whom  he 
names,  thinks  he  has  seen  the  parable  among  the  com 
mentaries  on  Genesis  xviii.  1 ;  and  it  is  quite  a  curious 
fact,  that  Saadi  gives  it  as  related  to  him,  and  that  he, 
according  to  his  own  account,  while  in  captivity  at  Trip 
oli,  was  compelled  to  work  on  the  fortifications  '  with 
some  Jews.'  Nothing  seems  more  likely  to  have  hap 
pened  than  that  a  learned  Jew,  being  a  fellow-prisoner 
with  a  learned  Persian,  should  have  related  to  him  this 
striking  parable,  of  which  the  personages  were  the  great 
Jewish  Patriarch,  and  a  devotee  of  the  old  Persian  su 
perstition  of  fire-worship. 

"Whatever  be  its  source,  there  are  few  teachings  as 
impressive  of  Jewish  or  Christian  wisdom.  It  is  an 
undoubted  chapter  of  that  great  primitive  Gospel,  which 
God  has  written  in  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  men, 
but  which,  like  the  page  of  revelation,  is  too  apt  to 
be  forgotten  under  the  influence  of  selfish  and  corrupt 
motives. 

"I  rejoice  to  hear  that  Mr.  Smith's  works  are  so  fre 
quently  reprinted.  In  this  way  he  will  for  ages  to  come 
continue  to  teach  lessons  of  toleration  and  humanity  to  all 
who  speak  the  English  tongue.  There  is  no  one  of  my 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  199 

friends  in  England,  with  respect  to  whom  I  am  more  fre 
quently  questioned  than  Mr.  Smith ;  and  I  esteem  it  one 
of  the  chief  blessings  of  my  residence  in  London  to  have 
known  him,  and  been  honored  with  so  much  of  his  kind 
ness. 

"I  remain,  my  dear  Mrs.  Smith,  with  the  highest  re 
gards,  ever  faithfully  yours, 

"EDWARD  EVERETT."' 

On  his  appointment  to  the  prebendal  stall  at  Bristol, 
he  went  for  the  first  time  to  Court,  and  he  give  an  amus 
ing  account  of  himself  on  the  occasion : 

"I  found  my  colleague  Tatc,  the  other  day,  in  his 
simplicity  consulting  the  Archdeacon  of  Newfoundland 
what  he  should  wear  at  the  levee  —  a  man  who  sits 
bobbing  for  cod,  and  pocketing  every  tenth  fish.  How 
ever,  I  did  worse  when  I  went,  by  consulting  no  one ; 
and,  through  pure  ignorance,  going  to  the  levee  in 
shoe-strings  instead  of  shoe-buckles.  I  found,  to  my 
surprise,  people  looking  down,  at  my  feet ;  I  could  not 
think  what  they  were  at.  At  first  I  thought  they  had 
discovered  the  beauty  of  my  legs,  but  at  last  the  truth 
burst  on  me,  by  some  wag  laughing,  and  thinking  I 
had  done  it  as  a  good  joke.  I  was  of  course  exces 
sively  annoyed  to  have  been  supposed  capable  of  such 
a  vulgar,  unmeaning  piece  of  disrespect,  and  kept  my 
feet  as  coyly  under  my  petticoats  as  the  veriest  prude 
in  the  country,  till  I  could  made  my  escape ;  so  per 
haps,  after  all,  I  had  better  have  followed  my  friend's 
example." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Happiness  increased  by  his  Promotion. — Death  of  eldest  Son. — Re- 
moval  to  Combe  Florey. — Rebuilding  of  House. — Lord  Jeffrey's  last 
Visit. — Increased  popularity  at  Bristol. — Collects  Contributions  to 
Review. — French  Revolution. — Riots  at  Bristol. — Speech  on  Reform. 
— Letters  on  Preferment. — Appointed  Canon  of  St.  Paul's. — Death 
of  Sir  James  Mackintosh  in  1832. — Marriage  of  eldest  Daughter  in 
1834. — Village  Anecdotes. — Christens  Grandchild. — Buys  House  in 
Charles  Street. — Rectitude  of  Stewardship  at  St.  Paul's. — Tour  to 
Holland  in  1S37. — Talleyrand. — Conversation  in  London,  and  Anec 
dotes. — Begins  Controversy  about  Church. — Petitions  to  House  of 
Lords. — Inscription  for  Statue  of  Lord  Grey. 

His  promotion  in  the  Church  was  a  step  in  life 
which  added  very  materially  to  my  father's  happi 
ness.  "Moralists  tell  you,"  said  he,  "  of  the  evils  of 
wealth  and  station,  and  the  happiness  of  poverty.  I 
have  been  very  poor  the  greatest  part  of  my  life,  and 
have  borne  it  as  well,  I  believe,  as  most  people,  but  I 
can  safely  say  that  I  have  been  happier  every  guinea  I 
have  gained.  I  well  remember,  when  Mrs.  Sydney  and 
I  were  young,  in  London,  with  no  other  equipage  than 
my  umbrella,  when  we  went  out  to  dinner  in  a  hackney 
coach  (a  vehicle,  by-the-by,  now  become  almost  mat 
ter  of  history),  when  the  rattling  step  was  let  down,  and 
the  proud,  powdered  red-plushes  grinned,  and  her  gown 
was  fringed  with  straw,  how  the  iron  entered  into  my 
soul." 

"  I  often  thank  God  for  my  animal  spirits.  I  called 

the  other  day  on  my  friend  and  neighbor  B ,  and 

found  him  moping  over  the  fire,  wringing  his  hands, 
and  in  a  state  of  the  deepest  melancholy.  '  Why,  B , 


MEMOIR    OF  THE   KEY.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  201 

what  is  the  matter  ?  Here  you  are  in  the  prime  of  life, 
with  health,  talents,  education,  a  sensible  wife,  pleas 
ing  children,  just  come  into  possession  of  this  fine  old 
place,  and  a  good  fortune,  and  have  moreover  the  ines 
timable  advantage  of  having  me  for  a  neighbor  ;  what  on 
earth  can  you  want  more  to  make  you  happy  ?'  '  Very 
true,  Sydney,  very  true ;  but'  (with  a  deep  sigh)  '  have 
you  considered  the  state  of  my  roads  ?'  '  No,'  I  said,  '  I 
have  certainly  not  taken  that  point  into  consideration, 

but  in  future  I  will ;  so  good  morning,  B .'  While 

I,  who  have  never  had  a  house,  or  land,  or  a  farthing  to 
spare,  am  sometimes  mad  with  spirits,  and  must  talk, 
laugh,  or  burst." 

He  had  now  need  of  all  his  elasticity  of  spirits,  for 
there  came  upon  him  what  he  declares  was  the  first  real 
sorrow  he  had  known — and  in  truth  it  was  a  heavy  one 
— the  death  of  his  eldest  son  Douglas,  just  as  he  had 
reached  maturity,  and  gave  promise  of  every  excellence, 
both  of  heart  and  mind,  that  could  endear  him  to  his 
parents  or  gratify  their  pride. 

He  died,  after  a  long  and  painful  illness,  in  town, 
in  the  year  1829.  I  see,  in  my  father's  note-book,  this 
simple  entry:  "April  14th.  My  beloved  son  Douglas 
died,  aged  twenty-four.  Alas!  alas!"  And  afterward : 
"  So  ends  this  year  of  my  life — a  year  of  sorrow,  from 
the  loss  of  my  beloved  son  Douglas — the  first  great  mis 
fortune  of  my  life,  and  one  which  I  shall  never  forget." 
In  his  last  hours  he  often  called  his  youngest  son  by  the 
name  of  Douglas,  showing  that  even  then  he  was  still  in 
his  thoughts. 

It  was  perhaps  well  for  all  parties,  that,  his  promo 
tion  to  the  prebendal  stall  at  Bristol  having  also  en 
titled  him  to  one  of  their  livings,  it  became  necessary 
for  my  father  to  resign  Foston,  and  settle  in  Somerset 
shire  ;  and  here  again  the  kindness  of  Lord  Lyndhnrst 

I* 


202  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

enabled  him  to  exchange  Fostoii  for  the  much  smaller, 
but  more  beautifully  situated  living,  of  Combe  Florey, 
near  Taunton. 

We  all  at  the  time  deeply  regretted  leaving  our  old 
haunts  in  Yorkshire,  where  we  had  lived  so  long,  re 
ceived  so  much  hospitality,  and  made  so  many  kind 
friends ;  but  this  entire  change  of  scene,  and  the  neces 
sity  for  immediate  exertion,  was  very  useful  to  all  under 
this  severe  affliction. 

In  the  following  letter,  just  sent  me  by  one  of  our 
kind  Yorkshire  neighbors,  he  alludes  touchingiy  to 
these  feelings  of  regret  for  his  lost  son  Douglas  : 

"  COMBE  FLOREY,  August  G,  1829. 

"DEAR  MRS.  THOMSON,* 

UI  never  heard  till  I  came  here  of  the  intended  kind 
ness  of  Mr.  Thomson  and  yourself,  with  a  view  to  my 
remaining  in  Yorkshire.  I  was  sensibly  touched  with 
it,  and  have  laid  it  up  in  the  archives  of  my  mind.  As 
to  wood  and  lawn,  cedar  and  fur,  and  pine  and  branch 
ing  palm,  I  have  exchanged  for  the  better.  Good,  ex 
cellent,  and  amiable  friends,  such  as  we  met  with  at 
Escrich,  I  did  not  expect  to  find.  Fortune  may  grant 
such  favors  once  in  a  life,  but  they  must  not  be  counted 
upon.  Your  family  are  always  among  our  sincere  re 
grets.  This  is  a  beautiful  place ;  the  house  larger  than 
Foston,  with  a  wood  of  three  or  four  acres  belonging  to 
it  close  to  the  house,  and  a  glebe  of  sixty  acres  sur 
rounding  it,  in  a  country  every  where  most  beautiful 
and  fertile.  The  people  are  starving — in  the  last  stage 
of  poverty  and  depression.  Mrs.  Sydney,  from  sorrow 
and  novelty,  has  forgotten  her  throat ;  I  think  the  com 
plaint  has  nearly  vanished.  I  am  busy  from  morning 
*  The  present  Dowager  Lady  Wenlock. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE    REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  203 

till  night  in  building — not  from  the  love  of  architecture, 
but  from  the  fear  of  death — not  from  a  preference  for 
any  particular  collocation  of  stones,  but  from  an  appre 
hension  that,  disdaining  all  collocation  (as  they  are  apt 
to  do  in  ancient  parsonages),  they  should  come  thun 
dering  about  my  head.  In  the  mean  time  I  have,  from 
time  to  time,  bitter  visitations  of  sorrow.  I  never  sus 
pected  how  children  weave  themselves  about  the  heart. 
My  son  had  that  quality  which  is  longest  remembered 
by  those  who  remain  behind — a  deep  and  earnest  affec 
tion  and  respect  for  his  parents.  God  save  you,  my 
dear  Mrs.  Thomson,  from  similar  distress!  Have  you 
read  —  — 's  America  ?  If  you  have,  I  hope  you  dislike 
it  as  much  as  I  do.  It  is  amusing,  but  very  unjust 
and  unfair.  It  will  make  his  fortune  at  the  Admi 
ralty.  Then  he  temporizes  about  the  Slave  Trade ; 
with  which  no  man  should  ever  hold  parley,  but  speak 
of  it  with  abhorrence,  as  the  greatest  of  all  human 
abominations.  We  stay  here  till  the  beginning  of  the 
year,  and  then  go  into  residence  at  Bristol.  I  hope  to 
be  in  town  in  the  spring,  and  hereafter  to  pay  you 
a  visit  in  Yorkshire,  which  will  be  a  great  pleasure  to 
me.  Accept,  my  dear  Mrs.  and  Mr.  Thomson,  our 
united  respect  and  regards, 

"And  believe  me, 

"  Your  sincere  friend, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

We  had  almost  to  begin  the  labors  of  Foston  over 
again,  as  we  found  the  parsonage -house  at  Combe 
Florey  in  a  most  ruinous  state,  and  requiring  instant 
attention.  But  my  father  now  brought  considerable 
experience  and  increased  wealth  to  the  task ;  and,  es 
tablishing  us  in  one  corner  of  the  house,  he  turned  in  an 
immense  gang  of  workmen,  and  in  a  very  short  time 


204  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

(at  the  expense  of  about  two  thousand  pounds  more  of 
loss  to  his  family,  having  almost  to  rebuild  it)  made 
one  of  the  most  comfortable  and  charming  parsonage- 
houses  I  have  ever  seen — a  striking  contrast,  I  must 
own,  in  every  way,  to  poor  Foston,  of  which  our  friend 
Mr.  Loch,  when  he  heard  we  had  left  it,  said  to  my  fa 
ther,  "Are  you  sure  you  have  left  Foston,  Mr.  Smith?" 
"  Yes."  "Never  to  return?''  "Never."  "Well,  then, 
I  may  venture  to  say  that  it  was,  without  exception,  the 
ugliest  house  I  ever  saw." 

The  climate,  the  vegetation,  and  the  soil  were  all  in 
strong  contrast  to  the  north ;  and  it  well  deserved  the 
name  of  Combe  Florey,  for  it  really  was  a  valley  of 
flowers — a  lovely  little  spot,  where  nature  and  art  com 
bined  to  realize  the  Happy  Valley. 

In  the  midst  of  our  building  operations,  wThen  the 
greater  part  of  the  roof  of  the  house,  which  required 
renewing,  was  put  together  in  rafters  on  the  lawn,  we 
received  a  visit  from  our  friend  Lord  Jeffrey.  I  well 
remember  our  sitting  out  there  amidst  the  rafters,  sur 
rounded  by  busy  workmen,  and  animated  by  the  deli 
cious  weather  and  the  beauty  of  the  scene  around.  He 
and  my  father  gave  full  play  to  their  fancy  and  imagin 
ation  ;  and  nothing  could  be  more  delightful  than  to  sit 
and  watch  them,  and  listen  to  the  playfulness  and  vari 
ety  of  their  conversation.  I  have,  I  believe,  omitted 
several  of  Lord  Jeffrey's  visits  ;  having  no  other  recol 
lections  of  them,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  than  that  of  the 
pleasure  they  always  afforded  to  both  old  and  young. 
But  this,  I  think,  was  his  last  visit  to  us ;  and  it  was 
touching  to  observe  these  two  eminent  men,  who  had 
begun  the  struggle  of  life  together,  who  had  loved  each 
other  so  long  and  so  well,  who  had  both  now  attained 
eminence  and  honor  in  their  respective  professions  with 
out  one  act  of  baseness,  sitting  together  in  this  little 


MEMOIR   OF   THE  REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  205 

earthly  paradise,  and,  in  their  elder  age,  talking  over 
and  looking  back  on  the  past  with  all  the  pleasure  and 
satisfaction  of  well-spent  lives.  Such  scenes  are  pleas 
ant  and  useful  to  dwell  upon. 

As  a  dignitary  of  the  Church,  my  father  now  thought 
it  more  becoming  to  put  his  name  to  what  he  should 

i  hereafter  write,  and  he  therefore  withdrew  from  the 
Edinburgh  Review ;  collecting  and  publishing  about 

\  ten  years  after  the  greater  part  of  his  contributions  to 
it.  He  says,  on  doing  so:  "I  see  very  little  in  my 
reviews  to  alter  or  repent  of.  I  always  endeavored  to 
fight  against  evil,  and  what  I  thought  evil  then  I 
think  evil  now.  I  am  heartily  glad  that  all  our  dis 
qualifying  laws  for  religious  opinions  are  abolished, 
and  I  see  nothing  in  such  measures  but  unmixed  good 
and  real  increase  of  strength  to  the  Establishment. 
To  set  on  foot  such  a  journal  in  such  times,  to  con 
tribute  toward  it  for  many  years,  to  bear  patiently  the 
reproach  and  poverty  which  it  caused,  and  to  look 
back  and  see  that  I  have  nothing  to  retract,  and  no 
intemperance  and  violence  to  reproach  myself  with, 
is  a  career  of  life  which  I  must  think  to  be  extremely 
fortunate. 

"  Strange  and  ludicrous  are  the  changes  in  human 
affairs !  The  Tories  are  now  on  the  tread-mill,  and  the 
well-paid  Whigs  are  riding  in  chariots ;  with  many  faces, 
however,  looking  out  of  the  windows  (including  that  of 
our  Prime  Minister),  which  I  never  remember  to  have 
seen  in  the  days  of  poverty  and  depression  of  Whig- 
gism.  Liberality  is  now  a  lucrative  business.  Who 
ever  has  any  institution  to  destroy,  may  consider  him 
self  as  a  commissioner,  and  his  fortune  made ;  and, 
to  my  utter  and  never-ending  astonishment,  I,  an  old 
Edinburgh  Reviewer,  find  myself  fighting,  in  the  year 
1839,  against  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the 


206  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

Bishop   of  London  for  the   existence  of  the  National 
Church." 


In  the  winter  of  the  year  1830  we  all  accompanied 
my  father  to  his  residence  in  Bristol,  where  his  popular 
ity  increased  more  and  more,  in  spite  of  the  firmness 
with  which  he  preached  many  unpalatable  doctrines, 
and  the  minuteness  with  which  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  in 
vestigate  all  the  affairs  of  the  Cathedral  and  Chapter. 
These,  up  to  this  time,  had  been  left  very  much  to  take 
care  of  themselves :  and  as  it  was  nobody's  business  to 
look  after  them,  they  had  fallen  into  great  confusion  and 
disorder. 

This  year  the  French  Revolution  took  place  (the  prob 
ability  of  which  he  had  foretold  in  his  letters  from  Paris 
in  1826),  producing  the  greatest  consternation,  distress, 
and  excitement  on  the  Continent. 

In  this  country  the  riots  at  Bristol  had  broken  out  in 
the  spring ;  and,  later  in  the  year,  the  resignation  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  the  introduction  of  the  Reform  Bill 
after  Lord  Grey's  acceptance  of  the  Ministry,  the  oppo 
sition  to  it  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  dissolution 
of  the  Parliament,  were  exciting  the  deepest  interest, 
and  producing  the  greatest  danger  of  violence  and  dis 
turbance  in  every  part  of  England. 

There  was  to  be  a  large  county  meeting  held  on  the 
subject  at  Taunton ;  and  though,  as  a  clergyman,  my 
father  generally  avoided  meetings  purely  political,  yet 
at  the  present  moment  he  saw  so  much  dangerous  ex 
citement  at  work  among  the  people,  and  felt  the  crisis 
to  be  one  of  such  vital  importance  to  the  country,  that 
lie  considered  it  the  duty  of  every  man,  who  had  the 
power  so  to  do,  to  raise  his  voice  in  favor  of  law  and 
order ;  and  to  urge  the  people  with  calmness  and  perse 
verance  to  obtain  those  objects  they  would  inevitably 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  207 

lose  by  violence.     In  this  speech,  among  other  things, 
he  says : 

"Nothing  can  be  more  different  than  personal  and 
political  fear :  it  is  the  artifice  of  our  opponents  to  con 
found  them  together.  .  .  .  The  greater  part  of  human 
improvements,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  are  made  after  war, 
tumult,  bloodshed,  and  civil  commotion.  .  .  .  Mankind 
seem  to  object  to  every  species  of  gratuitous  happiness, 
and  to  consider  every  advantage  as  too  cheap  which  is 
not  purchased  by  some  calamity.  ...  I  shall  esteem 
it  a  singular  act  of  God's  providence  if  this  great  nation, 
guided  by  these  warnings  of  history,  not  waiting  till 
tumult  for  reform,  not  trusting  reform  to  the  lowest  of 
the  people,  shall  amend  their  decayed  institutions,  at  a 
period  when  they  are  ruled  by  a  popular  Sovereign, 
guided  by  an  upright  minister,  and  blest  with  profound 
peace.  ...  If  many  are  benejftted  by  reform,  and  the 
lower  orders  are  not  injured,  this  alone  is  reason  enough 
for  the  change.  But  the  hewer  of  wood  and  the  drawer 
of  water  are  benefited  by  reform ;  and  the  connection 
between  the  existence  of  John  Russell  and  the  reduced 
price  of  bread  and  cheese  will  be  as  clear  as  it  has  been 
the  object  of  his  honest,  wise,  and  useful  life  to  make 
it.  Don't  be  led  away  by  nonsense.  All  things  arc 
dearer  under  a  bad  government,  and  cheaper  under  a 
good  one.  ...  I  am  old  and  tired — thank  me  for  end 
ing  ;  but  one  word  more  before  I  sit  down.  I  am  old, 
but  I  thank  God  I  have  lived  to  see  more  than  my  ob 
servations  on  human  nature  taught  me  I  had  any  right 
to  expect.  I  have  lived  to  see  an  honest  King,  in  whose 
word  his  ministers  could  trust.  I  have  lived  to  see  a 
King  with  a  good  heart,  who,  surrounded  by  nobles, 
thinks  of  common  men ;  who  loves  the  great  mass  of 
English  people,  and  wishes  to  be  loved  by  them ;  and 


208  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

who,  in  spite  of  clamor,  interest,  prejudice,  and  fear,  has 
the  manliness  to  carry  these  wise  changes  into  immediate 
execution.  Gentlemen,  farewell !  Shout  for  the  King  I'' 

We  attended  him  to  the  meeting.  I  had  often  seen 
the  silent  effect  produced  by  his  eloquence  in  crowded 
cathedrals,  but  I  never  before  saw  its  effect  on  a  multi 
tude  free  to  express  their  feelings  ;  and  were  I  to  live  a 
thousand  years,  I  should  never  forget  it. 

His  voice  seemed  heard  without  effort  in  every  part 
of  the  assembly ;  his  words  flowed  with  unbroken  flu 
ency;  his  language  was  simple  and  nervous;  he  seemed 
to  hold  the  very  heart-strings  of  the  people  in  his  hands, 
and  to  play  upon  them,  as  upon  an  instrument,  at  his 
pleasure ;  and  when  at  last  he  sat  down,  the  thunders 
of  applause  from  that  sea  of  heads  beneath  was  perfectly 
thrilling.  Such  an  exhibition  of  his  powers  filled  one 
with  regret  that  his  voice  was  never  likely  to  be  raised 
in  that  assembly  of  his  country  where  his  talents  and 
his  character  would  have  made  him  such  an  ornament, 
and  where  that  noble  voice  would  have  been  always 
raised  for  such  noble  purposes. 

And  here  I  must  allude  to  what  my  father  was  too 
proud  to  speak  of,  except  in  two  or  three  confidential 
letters  to  some  of  his  oldest  friends.  Though  he  had 
at  this  period  a  firm  conviction  that  a  bishopric  would 
be  destructive  of  his  peace  and  happiness,  and  a  still 
firmer  determination,  in  consequence,  to  reject  it,  should 
it  ever  be  offered,  yet  I  know  he  felt  deeply  to  the  hour 
of  his  death,  that  those  by  whose  side  he  had  fought  for 
fifty  years  so  bravely  and  so  honestly  in  their  adversity, 
and  with  the  most  unblemished  reputation  as  a  clergy 
man,  should  in  their  prosperity  never  have  offered  him 
that  which  they  were  bestowing  on  many,  only  known 
at  that  time,  according  to  public  report  (whatever  merits 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  209 

they  may  have  since  evinced),  for  their  mediocrity  or 
unpopularity. 

He  says,  in  one  of  these  letters,  after  expressing  his 
feeling  on  this  subject :  "But,  thank  God,  I  never  acted 
from  the  hope  of  preferment,  but  from  the  love  of  justice 
and  truth  which  was  bursting  within  me.  When  I  be 
gan  to  express  my  opinions  on  Church  politics,  what 
hope  could  any  but  a  madman  have  of  gaining  prefer 
ment  by  such  a  line  of  conduct  ?" 

In  another  letter  again  he  says:  "It  is  perhaps  of 
little  consequence  to  any  party  whether  I  adhere  to  it  or 
not ;  but  I  always  shall  adhere  to  the  Whigs,  whoever 
may  be  put  over  my  head ;  because  I  have  an  ardent 
love  of  truth  and  justice,  and  they  are  its  best  defenders. 
But,  adhering  to  them  under  all  circumstances,  I  can 
not  but  feel  whether  I  am  well  or  ill  used  by  them." 

This  silence  on  his  part  I  should  have  observed  like 
wise,  had  not  Lord  Melbourne,  with  that  noble  candor 
for  which  his  character  was  so  remarkable,  admitted 
the  injury  my  father  felt,  and  done  my  father  the  tardy 
justice  of  stating  to  a  gentleman,  a  mutual  friend,  and 
a  man  of  great  accuracy  (who  came  direct  from  his  house 
expressly  to  state  it  to  me),  "That  Lord  Melbourne 
said  there  was  nothing  he  more  deeply  regretted,  in 
looking  back  on  his  past  career,  than  the  not  having 
made  Sydney  Smith  a  bishop." 

And  a  juster  cause  of  regret,  I  believe,  was  never 
felt.  For  my  father's  estimate  of  what  a  bishop  ought 
to  be  was  so  high,  he  was  so  bound  in  honor  by  his 
own  writings  to  become  what  he  had  required  others  to 
be,  and  his  power  of  doing  what  he  felt  he  ought  to  do 
was  so  great,*  that,  had  he  ever  accepted  the  offer, 

*  He  says,  on  one  occasion,  "  I  hope  I  am  too  much  a  man  of  honor 
to  take  an  office  without  fashioning  my  manners  and  conversation  so 
as  not  to  bring  it  into  discredit." 


210  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

which  I  again  repeat  I  firmly  believe  he  never  would  at 
this  period  of  his  life  (though  ardently  desiring  it  when 
he  was  a  younger  man),  I  as  firmly  believe  there  would 
have  been  no  act  in  the  whole  of  Lord  Melbourne's  Min 
istry  that  would  have  reflected  more  honor  and  distinc 
tion  on  him.  But  I  bless  his  memory  for  this  wish  only 
of  justice  to  my  father. 

The  following  short,  manly  statement  of  his  case,  in 
a  letter  to  Lord  John  Russell,  on  the  subject  of  his  pre 
ferment,  seems,  as  it  were,  to  be  extorted  from  him  by 
that  sense  of  justice  which  so  powerfully  influenced  his 
feelings  through  life  toward  every  person,  and  on  every 
subject,  less  than  by  any  wish  to  exalt  himself,  and 
therefore,  to  a  certain  degree,  carries  conviction  with  it : 
"I  defy  -  -  to  quote  one  single  passage  of  my  writing- 
contrary  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Church.  I  defy  him  to 
mention  a  single  action  of  my  life  w^hich  he  can  call  im 
moral.  The  only  thing  he  could  charge  me  with  would 
be  high  spirits,  and  much  innocent  nonsense.  I  am 
distinguished  as  a  preacher,  and  sedulous  as  a  parochial 
clergyman.  His  real  charge  against  me  is  that  I  am  a 
high-spirited,  honest,  uncompromising  man,  whom  he 
and  all  the  bench  of  bishops  could  not  turn  upon  vital 
questions :  this  is  the  reason  why,  as  far  as  depends  upon 
others,  I  am  not  a  bishop.  But  I  am  thoroughly  sincere 
in  saying,  I  would  not  take  any  bishopric  whatever."* 

I  find  a  letter,  written  by  his  friend  Lord  John  Rus- 
sel,  in  answer,  from  which  I  shall  give  an  extract,  as  it 
shows  that  this  wish  to  do  justice  to  my  father  was 
shared  by  his  old  friend,  Lord  John,  likewise : 

"  MY  DEAR  SYDNEY — I  think  you  are  quite  right  not 
to  be  ambitious  of  the  prelacy,  as  it  would  lead  to  much 

*  I  see  in  this  letter  that  he  urges  strongly  the  appointment  of  sev- 
eral  of  his  friends,  and  apparently  not  without  effect. 


MEMOIR  OF   THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  211 

disquiet  for  you ;  but  if  I  had  entirely  my  own  way  in 
these  matters,  you  should  have  the  opportunity  of  re 
fusing  it." 

And  again,  my  father  wrote  at  a  later  period  to  Lord 
Holland,  saying,  "  You  have  said  and  written  that  you 
wished  to  see  me  a  bishop,  and,  I  have  no  doubt,  would 
try  to  carry  your  wishes  into  effect.  If  proper  vacancies 
had  occurred  in  the  beginning  of  Lord  Grey's  adminis 
tration,  I  believe  this  would  have  been  done.  Other 
politicians  have  succeeded,  who  entertain  no  such  notion. 
But  there  is  a  still  greater  obstacle  to  my  promotion, 
and  that  is,  that  I  have  entirely  lost  all  wish  to  be  a 
bishop.  The  thought  is  erased  from  my  mind,  and,  in 
the  very  improbable  event  of  a  bishopric  being  offered 
me,  I  would  steadily  refuse  it.  In  this  I  am  perfectly 
honest  and  sincere,  and  make  this  communication  to 
you  to  prevent  your  friendly  exertion  in  my  favor,  and 
perhaps  to  spare  you  the  regret  of  making  that  exertion 
in  vain." 

I  lament  to  find  that  a  beautiful  sketch  he  one  day 
drew  of  what  he  conceived  the  duties  of  a  bishop  to  be, 
has  been  lost  from  among  his  papers.  But  the  follow 
ing  short  extract  from  his  fragment  on  the  Irish  Church 
sufficiently  shows  what  he  felt  to  be  the  duties  of  so 
exalted  a  station ;  though  even  here,  as  usual,  he  draws 
no  ideal  picture  of  excellence,  impossible  to  attain,  but 
one  within  the  reach  of  any  man  of  sense  and  real  piety : 

"What  a  blessing  to  this  country  would  a  real  bishop 
bo  f 

f  '*     •       •       •      • 

"  But  I  never  remember  in  my  time  a  real  bishop — a 
grave,  elderly  man,  full  of  Greek,  with  sound  views  of 
the  middle  voice  and  prcterpluperfect  tense,  gentle  and 
kind  to  his  poor  clergy,  of  powerful  and  commanding 
eloquence,  in  Parliament  never  to  be  put  down  when 


212  MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

the  great  interests  of  mankind  were  concerned  ;  leaning 
to  the  Government  when  it  was  right,  leaning  to  the 
people  when  they  were  right ;  feeling  .that  if  the  Spirit 
of  God  had  called  him  to  that  high  office,  he  was  called 
for  no  mean  purpose,  but  rather  that  seeing  clearly,  act- 
ing"boldly,  and  intending  purely,  he  might  confer  lasting 
benefit  upon  mankind." 


There  were  at  this  time  so  many  mischievous  publi 
cations  circulating  among  the  people,  and  threatening 
letters  so  frequently  sent  to  my  father  and  other  gentle 
men  in  the  neighborhood,  that  he  thought  it  right  to  en 
deavor  to  counteract  them,  and  published  some  cheap 
letters  for  circulation  among  the  poor,  called  "Letters  to 
Swing,"  of  which  the  following  is  one  which  has  been 
accidentally  preserved : 

From  the  "Taunton  Courier"  of  Wednesday,  Dec.  8th,  1830. 

"  To  MR.  SWING. 

"  The  wool  your  coat  is  made  of  is  spun  by  machin 
ery,  and  this  machinery  makes  your  coat  two  or  three 
shillings  cheaper — perhaps  six  or  seven.  Your  white 
hat  is  made  by  machinery  at  half  price.  The  coals 
you  burn  are  pulled  out  of  the  pit  by  machinery,  and 
are  sold  to  you  much  cheaper  than  they  could  be  if 
they  were  pulled  out  by  hand.  You  do  not  complain 
of  these  machines,  because  they  do  you  good,  though 
they  throw  many  artisans  out  of  work.  But  what  right 
have  you  to  object  to  fanning  machines,  which  make 
bread  cheaper  to  the  artisans,  and  to  avail  yourselves 
of  other  machines  which  make  manufactures  cheaper  to 
you? 

"If  all  machinery  were  abolished,  every  thing  would 
be  so  dear  that  you  would  be  ten  times  worse  off  than 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  218 

you  now  are.  Poor  people's  cloth  would  get  up  to  a 
guinea  a  yard.  Hats  could  not  be  sold  for  less  than 
eighteen  shillings.  Coals  would  be  three  shillings  per 
hundred.  It  would  be  quite  impossible  for  a  poor  man 
to  obtain  any  comfort. 

"If  you  begin  to  object  to  machinery  in  farming, 
you  may  as  well  object  to  a  plow,  because  it  employs 
fewer  men  than  a  spade.  You  may  object  to  a  harrow, 
because  it  employs  fewer  men  than  a  rake.  You  may 
object  even  to  a  spade,  because  it  employs  fewer  men 
than  fingers  and  sticks,  with  which  savages  scratch  {he 
ground  in  Otaheitc.  If  you  expect  manufacturers  to 
turn  against  machinery,  look  at  the  consequence.  They 
may  succeed,  perhaps,  in  driving  machinery  out  of  the 
town  they  live  in,  but  they  often  drive  the  manufac 
turer  out  of  the  town  also.  He  sets  up  his  trade  in 
some  distant  part  of  the  country,  gets  new  men,  and 
the  disciples  of  Swing  are  left  to  starve  in  the  scene 
of  their  violence  and  folly.  In  this  way  the  lace  manu 
facture  traveled  in  the  time  of  Ludd,  Swing's  grand 
father,  from  Nottingham  to  Tiverton.  Suppose  a  free 
importation  of  corn  to  be  allowed,  as  it  ought  to  be, 
and  will  be.  If  you  will  not  allow  farmers  to  grow 
corn  here  as  cheap  as  they  can,  more  corn  will  come 
from  America ;  for  every  thrashing-machine  that  is  de 
stroyed,  more  Americans  will  be  employed,  not  more 
Englishmen. 

4 'Swing!  Swing!  you  are  a  stout  fellow,  but  you 
are  a  bad  adviser.  The  law  is  up,  and  the  Judge  is 
coming.  Fifty  persons  in  Kent  are  already  transport 
ed,  and  will  see  their  wives  and  children  no  more. 
Sixty  persons  will  be  hanged  in  Hampshire.  There 
are  two  hundred  for  trial  in  Wiltshire — all  scholars  of 
Swing !  I  am  no  farmer :  I  have  not  a  machine  bigger 
than  a  pepper-mill.  I  am  a  sincere  friend  to  the  poor, 


214  MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

and  I  think  every  man  should  live  by  his  labor :  but  it 
cuts  me  to  the  very  heart  to  see  honest  husbandmen 
perishing  by  that  worst  of  all  machines,  the  gallows — 
under  the  guidance  of  that  most  fatal  of  all  leaders — 
Swing!" 

One  of  the  earliest  uses  he  made  of  his  increase  of 
wealth  was  to  indulge  himself  by  enlarging  his  library, 
and  supplying  those  deficiencies  before  alluded  to,  which 
he  had  so  long  suffered  under ;  and  his  books,  which 
at  Foston  for  many  years  had  humbly  occupied  only 
the  end  of  his  little  dining-room,  now  boldly  spread 
themselves  over  three  sides  of  a  pretty  odd  room,  digni 
fied  by  the  name  of  library — about  twenty-eight  feet 
long  and  eight  feet  high — ending  in  a  bay-window  sup 
ported  by  pillars,  looking  into  the  garden,  and  which  he 
had  obtained  by  throwing  a  pantry,  a  passage,  and  a 
shoe-hole  together.  In  this  pretty,  gay  room  we  break 
fasted,  he  sat,  and  when  alone  we  spent  the  evening 
with  him.  He  used  to  say,  "No  furniture  so  charming 
as  books,  even  if  you  never  open  them,  or  read  a  single 
word." 

The  cholera  was  now  spreading  rapidly  over  the  coun 
try,  and  exciting  the  greatest  alarm  and  anxiety.  This 
immediately  set  all  my  father's  energy  to  work,  to  have 
every  remedy  at  hand  for  himself  and  the  poor  of  his 
parish,  and  to  take  every  precaution  which  the  learned 
suggested  :  one  of  these  was,  never  to  read  the  accounts 
of  its  progress,  which  often  produced  such  panic  that 
the  patient  was  half  dead  of  fear  before  the  cholera  ar 
rived  to  perfect  the  deed.  Luckily,  however,  neither  his 
remedies  nor  his  precautions  proved  necessary,  as  the 
cholera  respected  our  little,  happy  valley,  and  never  came 
near  us. 

In  October,  Lord  John  Eussell  and  his  family  came 


MEMO  Jit   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  215 

to  see  us ;  and  a  joyful  visit  it  was,  as  the  Whigs  had 
again  assumed  the  reins  of  Government  under  their  dis 
tinguished  leader  Lord  Grey,  and,  with  their  return, 
gave  assurance  of  obtaining  the  Eeform  Bill,  and  thus 
tranquilizing  the  country. 

Shortly  after,  when  we  were  staying  on  a  visit  with 
Lord  Morley  at  Saltram,  my  father  received  the  news 
L  that  Lord  Grey*  had  appointed  him  to  a  prebendal 
I  stall  at  St.  Paul's,  in  exchange  for  the  one  of  inferior 
value  he  held  at  Bristol,  which  had  previously  been  pre 
sented  to  him  by  his  friend  Lord  Lyndhurst.t  These 
glad  tidings,  together  with  the  charm  of  the  place,  the 
weather,  the  society  of  our  charming  hostess,  and  the 
many  kind,  warm  old  friends  he  found  assembled  there, 
who  all  seemed  to  rejoice  really  as  if  the  benefit  had 
been  conferred  on  themselves,  produced  such  an  effect 
on  his  spirits,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  forget  that 
week.  I  hardly  ever  remember  him  more  brilliant.  On 
his  return  he  wrote  the  little  squib  of  Mrs.  Partington 
and  her  battle  with  the  Atlantic,  which  had  a  success 
quite  unlooked-for,  spreading  in  every  direction ;  and 
sketches  of  Mrs.  Partington  and  her  mop  were  to  be 
seen  in  the  windows  of  all  the  picture-shops  about  the 
country. 

1832.  —  This  year  brought  with  it,  among  other 
events,  the  loss  of  one  of  his  early  and  most  valued 
friends,  Sir  James  Mackintosh ;  just  at  the  moment 
when  his  mind  seemed  in  the  highest  vigor,  and  he 
was  preparing  for  the  world  some  of  his  most  important 
works. 

Their  strong  friendship  had  been  much  cemented  by 

*  One  of  the  first  things  Lord  Grey  said  on  entering  Downing  Street, 
to  a  relation  who  was  with  him,  was,  "Now  I  shall  be  able  to  do  some 
thing  for  Sydney  Smith." 

f  His  brother  Bobus  used  to  say  that  Sydney's  life  was  the  only  in 
stance  of  underrating  honesty  that  he  had  ever  known  to  answer. 


210  MEMOlll  OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

the  intimacy  of  my  mother  with  the  ladies  of  his  family, 
and  his  loss  was  deeply  lamented  by  both.  My  father 
loved  to  think  of  Sir  James,  to  speak  of  his  virtues,  and 
describe  him ;  and  it  was  a  gratification  to  his  feelings 
publicly  to  express  his  admiration  of  his  old  friend  in 
the  letter  he  addressed  to  his  son,  Mr.  Mackintosh,  and 
published  in  his  Life  of  his  father.  In  this  he  says : 
"When  I  turn  from  living  spectacles  of  stupidity,  ig 
norance,  and  malice,  and  wish  to  think  better  of  the 
world,  I  remember  my  great  and  benevolent  friend 
Mackintosh."  And,  speaking  of  his  love  of  truth,  his 
memory,  and  his  knowledge,  he  says:  "Those  who 
lived  with  him  found  they  were  gaining  upon  doubt, 
correcting  error,  enlarging  the  boundaries  and  strength 
ening  the  foundations  of  truth."  And  again  he  says: 
"  Whatever  might  assuage  the  angry  passions,  and  ar 
range  the  conflicting  interests  of  nations ;  whatever  could 
promote  peace,  increase  knowledge,  extend  commerce, 
diminish  crime,  and  encourage  industry;  whatever  could 
exalt  human  character,  and  could  enlarge  human  under 
standing,  struck  at  once  to  the  heart  of  your  father,  and 
roused  all  his  faculties.  I  have  seen  him  in  a  moment, 
when  this  spirit  came  upon  him,  like  a  great  ship  of 
war,  cut  his  cable,  and  spread  his  enormous  canvas,  and 
launch  into  a  wide  sea  of  reasoning  eloquence." 

During  Sir  James's  absence  in  Bombay,  my  father 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  writing  constantly  to  him,  to 
tell  him  all  that  was  going  on  in  Europe.  But  these 
letters,  full  of  interest,  though  kindly  returned  by  Mr. 
Mackintosh  on  the  deatli  of  his  father,  have,  I  fear,  to 
gether  with  all  the  letters  of  my  father's  boyhood,  pre 
served  carefully  by  his  poor  mother,  and  given  to  mine, 
fallen  a  sacrifice  to  my  father's  mania  for  burning  papers. 
I  remember  these  early  letters  of  his  were  most  original 
and  characteristic ;  and  it  was  one  of  our  greatest  pleas- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  217 

tires  as  children  to  hear  them  read  aloud  in  the  evening 
by  my  mother.  There  was  likewise  a  large  collection 
of  letters  to  his  friend  Horncr,  which  he  destroyed  from 
thinking  them  of  no  value ;  but  which  would  have  been 
among  the  most  interesting  of  his  correspondence,  as 
there  were  few  whom  he  more  loved,  trusted,  and  hon 
ored. 

In  1834  my  father  took  a  house  for  a  short  time  in 
Stratford  Place,  from  whence  his  eldest  daughter  was 
married  to  Dr.  Holland.  On  this  occasion  he  writes 
to  Lady  Holland:  "We  are  about  to  be  married;  and 
Saba  will  be  one  day  Lady  Holland :  she  must  then  fit 
herself  up  with  Luttrells,  Rogers,  and  John  Hussells, 
etc.,  etc. :  Sydney  Smith  she  has."  In  the  summer  he 
welcomed  Dr.  Holland's  three  children,  as  if  they  had 
been  his  own,  to  spend  the  whole  autumn  in  his  house 
at  Combe  Florey. 

While  we  were  there,  he  was  writing  one  morning  in 
his  favorite  bay-window,  when  a  pompous  little  man,  in 
rusty  black,  was  ushered  in.  "May  I  ask  what  pro 
cures  me  the  honor  of  this  visit  ?"  said  my  father. 
"Oh,"  said  the  little  man,  "I  am  compounding  a  his 
tory  of  the  distinguished  families  in  Somersetshire,  and 
have  called  to  obtain  the  Smith  arms."  "I  regret,  sir," 
said  my  father,  "not  to  be  able  to  contribute  to  so  val 
uable  a  work ;  but  the  Smiths  never  had  any  arms,  and 
have  invariably  sealed  their  letters  with  their  thumbs." 

In  truth,  he  could  not  have  stumbled  on  a  more  per 
fect  Goth  than  my  father  on  the  subject  of  ancestral 
distinctions.  For  though  the  Smiths  were  not  literally 
reduced  to  their  thumbs,  yet,  feeling  how  completely 
he  had  been  the  maker  of  his  own  fortunes,  my  father 
adopted  the  motto  for  his  aarriage  of  "Faber  mea?  for- 
tuna3."  He  loved  to  repeat  that  answer  of  Junot  to  tlw 
old  noblesse,  when  boasting  of  their  line  of  ancestors : 
VOL.  I.—K 


218  MEMOIR   OF  THE  KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"All,  ma  foi !  jc  n'cii  sals  rien ;  moi  je  suis  mon'an- 
cetre." 

During  Lord  Grey's  administration,  which  terminated 
in  July,  1834,  there  had  "been  but  two  or  three  vacan 
cies  for  bishoprics  in  England  (Ireland,  for  my  father, 
was  out  of  the  question).  There  were,  of  course,  nu 
merous  claims  on  Lord  Grey ;  and  out  of  this  small 
number,  King  William  IV.,  from  kindness  to  Lord 
Grey,  insisted  on  appointing  Dr.  Grey,  his  "brother, 
without  even  consulting  Lord  Grey.  Had  Lord  Grey 
had  more  to  bestow  and  remained  longer  in  power,  I 
have  good  reason  to  believe  that  his  old  friend  Sydney 
Smith  would  not  have  been  forgotten.  This  belief,  it 
has  been  seen,  my  father  stated  in  his  letters  during 
Lord  -Grey's  life — and  since  his  death  I  find  it  con 
firmed,  from  papers  I  possess,  by  one  who  best  knew 
Lord  Grey's  feelings. 

I  think  it  was  about  this  period  that  an  incident  hap 
pened  to  a  poor  half-mad  woman,  who  lived  at  the  end 
of  our  village — with  a  drunken  husband,  and  a  swarm 
of  children — all  sunk,  in  consequence,  into  a  hopeless 
state  of  poverty,  dirt,  and  idleness,  save  one  son,  who, 
strange  to  say,  had  escaped  the  general  contagion.  This 
boy,  first  at  school,  then  as  apprentice  to  a  shoemaker 
in  a  neighboring  village,  had  established  a  high  charac 
ter,  and  was  the  pride  of  his  old  mother's  heart.  Un 
fortunately,  on  carrying  home  some  work,  he  was  tempt 
ed  into  a  public-house  to  drink  (what  no  Somersetshire 
man  can  resist)  a  draught  of  cider.  Some  strangers 
were  in  the  room,  and  shortly  after  the  boy's  entrance 
a  silk  handkerchief  was  missed,  immediate  search  made, 
and  the  handkerchief  found  on  young  Treble,  to  the 
poor  boy's  utter  horror.  A  warrant  was  obtained,  the 
boy  taken  before  the  magistrates,  who,  upon  the  evi 
dence,  and  the  general  character  of  the  family,  were 


MEMOIll  OF  THE  KEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  219 

about  to  commit  him  to  prison.  The  poor  old  mother, 
frantic  with  grief,  came  before  my  father,  imploring  his 
assistance,  and  asserting  the  entire  innocence  of  her  son. 
My  father,  no  longer  a  magistrate,  but  touched  by  her 
sorrow,  and  believing  the  possible  innocence  of  the  boy 
from  his  previous  knowledge  of  him,  undertook  the  af 
fair  ;  went  instantly  to  a  neighboring  village,  where  the 
magistrates  were  sitting ;  obtained  with  some  difficulty 
a  delay,  upon  his  undertaking  to  bring  fresh  evidence  in 
favor  of  the  boy ;  and  then,  with  as  much  ardor  as  if 
his  own  life,  and  honor,  and  every  thing  he  held  most 
dear,  were  at  stake,  he  wrote,  lie  investigated,  he  cross- 
examined  for  nearly  a  week,  and  on  the  day  appointed 
attended  the  trial.  He  secured  the  best  lawyer  he  could 
find  to  conduct  the  cause ;  then,  I  believe,  spoke  for  the 
boy  himself;  and,  by  the  evidence  he  produced,  suc 
ceeded  in  showing,  to  the  satisfaction  of  all,  that  the 
handkerchief  had  been  hid  where  the  boy  could  not 
have  hid  it  under  the  circumstances  ;  and  that  the  real 
culprit  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  men  present,  of  no 
toriously  bad  character,  who,  to  save  himself,  when  the 
search  was  made,  dexterously  contrived  to  stuff  it  down 
the  innocent  boy's  collar  as  he  was  pretending  to  assist 
in  the  search. 

Treble  was  acquitted;  and  the  wild  joy  and  grati 
tude  of  the  old  ragged  mother  were  deeply  felt  by  my 
father,  and  her  prayers  for  her  protector  I  can  not  be 
lieve  were  unheard  in  Heaven. 

He  never  shrank  from  any  duty,  however  revolting 
to  his  feelings.  On  one  occasion  he  set  out  on  a  win 
ter's  night,  lantern  in  hand,  to  visit  a  poor  cottager 
seized  with  epileptic  fits,  of  which,  from  some  painful 
early  associations,  he  had  a  peculiar  horror ;  but  they 
wished  for  him,  and  he  went  as  usual ;  and  I  remem 
ber  on  his  return  he  was  much  overpowered  by  the 


220  MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEV.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

scene  he  had  witnessed,  which  haunted  him  for  many- 
days.  Several  volumes  of  manuscript  remain  of  his  pre 
scriptions  for  the  poor,  of  which  he  always  kept  a  re 
cord,  that  he  might  refer  to  them  if  necessary ;  and  they 
now  help  me  to  bear  testimony  to  his  attentions  and 
kindness  to  them. 

Soon  after  coming  to  town  the  following  year,  at  my 
request,  he  christened  my  eldest  girl ;  and  the  emotion 
and  deep  feeling  he  evinced  on  the  occasion  added  not  a 
little,  I  remember,  to  the  impressiveness  of  that  beauti 
ful  service.  On  this  occasion  Miss  Fox,  Lord  Hol 
land's  sister,  stood  as  godmother  to  my  little  girl,  and 
bestowed  on  her  her  own  name.  A  few  years  ago  my 
old  friend  Mr.  Rogers  said  to  me,  "What  a  privileged 
person  you  are,  to  have  had  such  a  father  and  such 
an  uncle!"  In  truth  I  feel  it  so.  But  he  might  have 
added,  "And  such  a  friend  as  Miss  Fox,"  though  I 
must  share  this  last  with  so  many;  for  who  was  ever 
so  loved,  so  honored,  or  so  worthy  to  be  so,  as  Miss 
Fox?  Not  to  speak  of  her  understanding  (which  was 
such  as  is  rarely  bestowed  on  women),  there  was  such 
an  atmosphere  of  purity,  simplicity,  and  indulgent  kind 
ness  about  her,  that  all  evil  passions  seemed  to  fly  away 
at  her  approach,  and  a  better  and  more  amiable  tone  to 
be  infused  into  society.  Her  heart  was  as  a  spot  to 
repose  on  in  the  moral  world,  a  place  of  refuge  in  dis 
tress,  of  sympathy  in  joy  or  sorrow,  and  of  warm  un 
varying  friendship  in  weal  or  woe. 

In  the  autumn  my  father  bought  a  small  house  in 
Charles  Street,  No.  33,  near  St.  John's  Chapel,  where 
he  had  preached  with  so  much  success  when  a  young- 
man  on  first  coming  to  London ;  and  he  gives  a  comic 
al  account,  in  one  of  his  letters,  of  the  short  time  he 
should  require  to  paper,  paint,  furnish  it,  and  set  it  in 
order. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  221 

In  October  lie  took  my  mother  and  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Hibbcrt  to  Paris  for  a  short  time ;  and  in  November 
came  to  town  for  his  residence  at  St.  Paul's  and  to 
enter  upon  his  new  duties  there,  to  his  performance 
of  which  (even  those  least  known  to  the  world,  and 
which  he  might  have  neglected  almost  without  blame) 
some  of  his  fellow-laborers  have  given  most  kind  and 
gratifying  testimony,  as  I  find  in  this  letter  to  Lady 
B ,  sent  to  my  mother  from  Mr.  Cockerell,  archi 
tect  and  superintendent  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  which 
I  give,  as  showing  a  part  of  his  character  little  known 
to  the  world — his  powers  of  business : 

"IlAMPSTEAD,    Oct.24:th,   1851. 

"  DEAR  LADY  B , 

"I  have  great  pleasure  in  committing  to  writing,  ac 
cording  to  your  request,  some  of  those  anecdotes  on  the 
practical  qualities  of  our  lamented  friend,  the  Rev.  Syd 
ney  Smith,  which  you  listened  to  with  so  much  interest 
last  year.  Referring  as  they  do  to  his  Gesta  as  Canon 
Residentiary  of  St.  Paul's,  superintending  more  espe 
cially  the  repairs  of  the  fabric,  and  my  agency  therein  as 
the  appointed  surveyor  and  paymaster ;  they  certainly 
exhibit  the  bold  originality  of  his  mind,  and  the  integ 
rity  of  his  habits  in  the  common  transactions  of  busi 
ness,  in  which  duty  and  fidelity  arc  alone  concerned, 
with  as  much  advantage  as  the  better-known  acts  of  his 
public  life.  And  you  justly  insist  upon  my  relation  of 
them,  however  humble,  and  commonly  considered  be 
neath  the  dignity  of  biography ;  as  perhaps  more  illus 
trative  of  conscientious  motive  and  intrinsic  merit,  than 
the  more  striking  talents  which  made  him  so  justly 
valued  and  admired  by  the  world,  and  as  exhibiting 
his  character  from  a  point  of  view  not  hitherto  perhaps 
taken  sufficiently  into  account. 


222  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"The  routine  and  technical  conduct  of  the  current 
"business  of  public  bodies  is  ordinarily  committed  confi 
dentially  by  them  to  those  hands  which  have  .been  found 
worthy*  of  the  trust ;  but  on  his  appointment  the  new 
Canon  avowed  his  diffidence  of  them  in  general.  His 
experience,  acquired  by  the  habit  of  careful  observation, 
had  taught  him  to  suspect,  wherever  the  clearest  evi 
dence  of  rectitude  was  deficient ;  and  he  investigated 
with  the  greatest  minuteness  all  transactions  which 
were  placed  under  his  superintendence,  and  that  with  a 
severity  of  discipline  neither  called  for  nor  agreeable. 

"His  early  communications,  therefore,  with  myself, 
and  I  may  say  with  all  the  officers  of  the  Chapter,  were 
extremely  unpleasant ;  but  when  satisfied  by  his  meth 
ods  of  investigation,  and  by  a  '  little  collision,'  as  he 
termed  it,  that  all  was  honest  and  right,  nothing  could  be 
more  candid  or  kind  than  his  subsequent  treatment ;  and 
our  early  dislike  was  at  length  converted  into  unalloyed 
confidence  and  regard.  As  he  expressed  himself  to  one 
of  the  most  valued  of  our  staff,  '  When  I  heard  every 
one  speak  well  of  you,  I  entertained  the  most  vehement 
suspicions ;  and  I  treated  you  as  a  rogue  until  I  had 
tried  you  so  far,  that  you  could  endure  such  harsh  treat 
ment  no  longer.' 

"As  nothing  was  taken  upon  trust  at  first,  great 
were  our  disputes  as  to  contracts,  materials,  and  prices : 
with  all  of  which,  from  the  rates  in  the  market,  to  those 
of  Portland  stone,  putty,  and  white  lead,  he  armed  him 
self  with  competent  information:  every  item  was  taxed, 
and  we  owe  several  important  improvements  in  the  ad 
ministration^  of  the  works  and  accounts  to  his  acumen, 
punctuality,  and  vigor.  J^ot  only  did  he  thus  adjust 
and  scrutinize  the  payment  of  works,  but  nothing  new 
could  be  undertaken  without  his  survey  and  personal 
superintendence.  An  unpracticcd  head  and  a  podagrous 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  223 

disposition  of  limbs  might  well  have  excused  the  survey 
of  those  pinnacles  and  heights  of  our  cathedral,  which 
are  to  all  Loth  awful  and  fatiguing ;  but  nothing  daunted 
him ;  and  once,  when  I  suggested  a  fear  that  his  portly 
person  might  stick  fast  in  a  narrow  opening  of  the  west 
ern  towers,  which  we  were  surveying,  he  reassured  me 
by  declaring,  that  '  if  there  were  six  inches  of  space, 
there  would  be  room  enough  for  him.' 

"During  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  my 
direction  of  these  repairs,  I  had  met  with  no  similar 
sacrifice  or  minute  attention  to  this  department ;  and 
when  it  is  remembered  that  this  duty  in  no  degree  affects 
the  funds  of  the  Dean  and  Chapter,  and  that  these  re 
pairs  are  from  a  separate  fund,  the  administration  of 
which  only  is  intrusted  to  one  of  the  Canons,  we  shall 
the  more  admire  so  conscientious  a  discharge  of  this 
duty.  Such  was  the  minor  process ;  but  the  greater 
measures  for  the  enduring  security  of  this  magnificent 
cathedral  were  most  important  and  conspicuous.  The 
disasters  of  York  Cathedral  had  exhibited  the  unwarrant 
able  neglect,  so  general  in  these  sacred  edifices,  of  the 
common  security  of  insurance  ;  and  in  1840,  I  believe, 
Canterbury  was  the  only  cathedral  church  insured.  St. 
Paul's  was  speedily  and  effectually  insured  in  some  of 
the  most  substantial  offices  of  London :  not  satisfied  with 
this  security,  he  advised  the  introduction  of  the  mains 
of  the  New  River  into  the  lower  parts  of  the  fabric,  and 
cisterns  and  movable  engines  in  the  roof;  and  quite  just 
ifiable  was  his  joke,  that  'he  would  reproduce  the  Del 
uge  in  our  cathedral.' 

"The  fine  library  of  the  fabric,  the  estimation  of  which 
was  always  cited  by  Dean  Vanmildert,  had  long  suffered 
by  dilapidation  and  damp ;  but  a  stove,  American  in 
deed,  and  better  suited  to  our  slender  finances  than  the 
dignity  of  our  library,  soon  dispelled  one  evil,  and  ren- 


224  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

dered  it  accessible  and  comfortable  to  the  studions  at 
the  same  time ;  and  the  bindings  were  all  roughly,  but 
substantially,  repaired.  The  restoration  of  the  noble 
model,  the  favorite  scheme  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren — 
now,  alas  !  a  ruin,  after  one  hundred  and  forty  years  of 
neglect — was  no  less  in  his  constant  contemplation ;  but 
our  funds  were  insufficient.  The  successful  result  of  a 
singular  dispute  as  to  the  will  of  Dr.  Clarke,  in  1675, 
which  had  been  brought  before  the  Chapter  by  our  re 
spected  Chapter  clerk,  Mr.  Hodgson,  dining  Mr.  Syd 
ney  Smith's  administration,  caused  a  great  addition  to 
the  fabric  fund,  which  had  before  been  insufficient  for 
its  purposes,  and  effected  an  increase  which  it  is  hoped 
will  secure  the  cathedral  from  dilapidation. 

"  A  question  of  law  was  well  suited  to  Mr.  Smith's 
acumen  and  vigor,  and  he  very  materially  assisted,  dur 
ing  the  progress  of  a  suit  in  Chancery,  instituted  for 
the  purpose  of  establishing  the  will,  to  its  being  brought 
to  a  speedy  and  satisfactory  conclusion,  to  the  lasting 
benefit  of  the  cathedral. 

"  These  are  some  of  the  efficient  labors  of  our  valued 
friend  within  my  own  professional  knowledge,  and  they 
might  be  greatly  increased  by  that  of  my  colleagues  in 
office  at  St.  Paul's ;  in  proof  of  which,  I  am  permitted 
by  Mr.  Hodgson,  who  loved  and  honored  him,  to  quote 
a  constant  saying  of  his,  '  That  Mr.  Sydney  Smith  was 
one  of  the  most  strictly  honest  men  he  ever  met  in  busi 
ness.'  Thus  established  in  the  respect  and  friendship, 
I  may  truly  say,  of  all  of  us,  you  will  conceive  the  re 
gret  with  which  I  received  his  announcement,  by  a  note, 
some  years  before  his  lamented  departure,  that  '  I  should 
hear  with  pleasure,  after  so  much  trouble,  that  being-  in 
the  expectation  of  his  first  paralytic,  he  was  about  to 
give  up  his  superintendence  of  my  department  to  abler 
hands.' 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  225 

"I  have  great  pleasure,  dear  madam,  in  offering  you 
these  few  anecdotes,  in  testimony  of  a  beloved  and 
honored  memory,  however  humble  and  insufficiently  ex 
pressed.  To  contribute,  in  any  truthful  aud  impartial 
way,  to  the  just  appreciation  of  an  honest  and  illustrious 
character,  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  duties  we  can  be 
called  upon  to  perform  ;  and  surely  these  traits  of  con 
science  and  integrity,  of  which  I  have  been  the  witness 
only,  in  the  fastidious,  troublesome,  and  inconspicuous 
duties  of  the  business  transactions  of  fabric  accounts  and 
repairs,  may,  in  this  sense,  well  deserve  the  record  to 
which  you  have  so  earnestly  invited  me.  And  I  have 
the  honor  to  be,  dear  madam,  your  most  respectful  friend 
and  servant, 

"C.   E.    COCKERELL." 

The  following,  from  his  old  friend,  the  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's,  is  so  valuable  that  I  can  not  resist  inserting  it : 

"No  man,  I  should  say,  went  on  improving  to  so 
late  a  period  of  his  life,  both  in  acuteness  of  thought 

and  felicity  of  expression Indeed  the  business 

in  which  I  am  at  present  engaged  brings  at  every  turn 
my  old  friend  before  me.  I  find  traces  of  him  in  every 
particular  of  Chapter  affairs ;  and  on  every  occasion 
where  his  hand  appears,  I  find  stronger  reason  for  re 
specting  his  sound  judgment,  knowledge  of  business, 
and  activity  of  mind  ;  above  all,  the  perfect  fidelity  of 
of  his  stewardship.  In  his  care  of  his  own  interests  as 
member  of  the  Chapter,  there  was  ever  the  most  honest 
(rarely,  if  I  may  not  say  singularly  honest)  regard  for 
the  interests  of  the  Chapter  and  the  Church.  His  man 
agement  of  the  affairs  of  St.  Paul's  (for  at  one  time  he 
seems  to  have  been  the  manager)  only  commenced  too 
late,  and  terminated  too  soon." 

In  the  year  1837  he  made  a  short  tour  into  Holland, 
K* 


226  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

with  my  mother.  He  always  lamented  that  the  power 
of  traveling  had  been  denied  him  till  his  body  had  be 
come  almost  unequal  to  the  fatigue  of  doing  so.  He 
was  ever  most  eager  to  see  and  to  hear ;  but  with  the 
same  rapidity  that  characterized  his  thoughts,  he  only 
liked  first  impressions,  and  never  dwelt  ten  minutes  to 
gether  on  the  same  scene  or  picture ;  declared  he  had 
mastered  the  Louvre  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  and  could 
judge  of  Talma's  powers  in  ten  minutes.* 

On  his  return,  by  Brussels,  he  received  much  kind 
ness  and  attention  from  his  friend  Mr.  Van  de  Weyer, 
who  was  then  staying  there,  and  made  acquaintance 
with  Madame  Yan  de  Weyer,  his  mother,  with  whom 
he  was  excessively  struck,  both  from  her  talent  and  her 
vigor  of  character.  He  had,  while  here,  the  honor  of  an 
interview  with  King  Leopold,  who  afterward  sent  him  an 
invitation  to  dine  with  him  at  his  palace  at  Laeken,  and 
was  kind  enough  to  send  his  carriage  to  Brussels  to  take 
him  there  and  bring  him  back.  He  felt  this  unexpect 
ed  honor  and  attention  from  the  sovereign  of  a  foreign 
country  as  he  ought.  But  am  I  wrong  in  believing  that 
such  honors  do  more  honor  even  to  the  giver  than  the 
receiver  ?  for  are  they  not  a  pledge  to  the  people  that 
their  sovereign  prizes  talents  and  honesty  wherever  they 
are  found,  and  whether  they  have  been  employed,  as 
my  father  says,  "in  protecting  the  just  rights  of  kings 
or  restraining  their  unlawful  ambition  ?" 

He  says,  in  a  letter  from  Brussels,  "  Holland  is  dear, 
dirty,  ugly.  I  was  much  struck  with  the  commercial 
grandeur  of  Amsterdam.  You  must  excuse  me  for 
thinking  the  English  to  be  the  greatest  and  wisest  na 
tion  that  ever  existed  in  the  world ;  we  are  excelled 

*  It  was  this  love  of  change  that  made  him  often  write  and  speak 
of  Combe  Florey  as  an  earthly  paradise ;  and  again,  after  some  weeks, 
describe  it  as  un  tonibeau.  Both  were  genuine  feelings  at  the  moment. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  227 

however  in  many  tilings — in  buildings,  cooking,  "baking, 
and  in  good  manners.  In  setting  out  we  went  by  Dun 
kirk,  over  a  most  atrocious  country.  With  Dunkirk  I 
was  agreeably  surprised ;  I  found  an  excellent  inn,  good 
shops,  and  noble  church  .  and  tower,  and  altogether  a 
handsome  city.  At  Ypres  I  was  delighted  with  the 
Hotel  de  Ville,  one  of  the  most  magnificent  Gothic 
buildings  I  ever  saw.  At  Bruges  the  hall  and  tower 
are  quite  surprising,  as  is  the  town-house  here.  The 
Flemings  are  hideously  ugly ;  so  is  their  country ;  the 
inns  arc  all  very  good.  All  their  great  towns  are  melan 
choly  and  under-peopled. 

"  I  dined  yesterday  with  Sir  Hamilton  Seymour.  Yan 
de  Weyer  has  been  extremely  kind  and  hospitable  to 
us,  and  his  old  mother  is  an  excellent  person.  I  am  to 
be  presented  to  the  King  to-day." 

In  the  autumn  he  came  again  for  his  residence  at  St. 
Paul's,  and  the  eagerness  to  obtain  his  society  seemed 
to  increase  with  his  years.  He  used,  during  his  stay  in 
town,  to  give  an  evening  party  once  a  week.  These 
parties  were  always  popular,  though;  from  the  numbers 
now  assembled  at  them,  they  had  not  the  charm  of  the 
little  select  suppers  of  his  youth. 

One  evening,  at  his  house,  a  few  friends  had  come  in 
to  tea;  among  others,  Lord  Jeffrey,  Dr.  Holland,  and 
his  sister.  Some  one  spoke  of  Talleyrand.  "  Oh,"  said 
Sydney,  "Lady  Holland  labored  incessantly  to  convince 
me  that  Talleyrand  was  agreeable,  and  was  very  angry 
because  his  arrival  was  usually  a  signal  for  my  depart 
ure  ;  but,  in  the  first  place,  he  never  spoke  at  all  till 
he  had  not  only  devoured  but  digested  his  dinner,  and 
as  this  was  a  slow  process  with  him,  it  did  not  occur 
till  every  body  else  was  asleep,  or  ought  to  have  been 
so ;  and  when  he  did  speak  he  was  so  inarticulate  I 
never  could  understand  a  word  he  said."  "It  was 


228  MEMOIR  OF  THE  EEV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

otherwise  with  me,"  said  Dr.  Holland;  "I  never  found 
much  difficulty  in  following  him."  "  Did  not  you?  why 
it  was  an  abuse  of  terms  to  call  it  talking  at  all ;  for  he 
had  no  teeth,  and,  I  believe,  no  roof  to  his  mouth — no 
uvula — no  larynx — no  trachea — no  epiglottis — no  any 
thing.  It  was  not  talking,  it  was  gargling ;  and  that, 
by-the-by,  now  I  think  of  it,  must  be  the  very  reason 
why  Holland  understood  him  so  much  better  than  I 
did,"  turning  suddenly  round  on  him  with  his  merry 
laugh. 

"  Yet  nobody's  wit  was  of  so  high  an  order  as  Talley 
rand's  when  it  did  come,  or  has  so  well  stood  the  test 
of  time.  You  remember  when  his  friend  Montrond* 
was  taken  ill,  and  exclaimed,  'Mon  ami,  je  sens  les 
tourmens  de  1'enfer.'  'Qnoi!  deja?'  was  his  reply. 
And  when  he  sat  at  dinner  between  Madame  de  Stael 
and  Madame  Recamier,  the  celebrated  beauty,  Madame 
de  Stael,  whose  beauties  were  certainly  not  those  of  the 
person,  jealous  of  his  attentions  to  her  rival,  insisted 
upon  knowing  which  he  would  save  if  they  were  both 
drowning.  After  seeking  in  vain  to  evade  her,  he  at 
last  turned  toward  her  and  said,  with  his  usual  shrug, 
'Ah,  madame,  vous  savez  nagerS  And  when  —  —  ex 
claimed,  'Me  voila  entre  1'esprit  et  la  beaute,'  he  an 
swered,  '  Oui,  et  sans  posseder  ni  Tun  ni  1'autre.'  And 
of  Madame  -  — ,  '  Oui,  elle  est  belle,  tres-belle ;  mais 
pour  la  toilette,  cela  commence  trop  tard,  et  finit  trop 
tot.'  Of  Lord  -  -  he  said,  '  C'est  la  bienveillance 
meme,  mais  la  bienveillance  la  plus  perturbative  que 
j'ai  jamais  comui.'  To  a  friend  of  mine  he  said  on  one 
occasion,  'Miladi,  voulez-vous  me  preter  ce  livre?'  'Oui, 
mais  vous  me  le  rendrez  ?'  'Oui.'  '  Parole  d'honneur  ?' 

*  I  find  that  Talleyrand  used  to  tell  this  story  as  having  passed  be 
tween  Cardinal  De  la  Iloche-Guyon,  a  celebrated  epicure,  and  his  con 
fessor. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  229 

'Oui.'  'Vous  en  etes  surf  'Oui,  oui,  miladi ;  mais, 
pour  vous  Ic  rendre,  il  faut  absolument  d'abord  me  le 
preter.' 

"What  a  talker  that  Frenchman  Buchon  is !  Macaulay 
is  a  Trappist  compared  to  him. 

"I  was,  many  years  ago,  talking  in  Talleyrand's 
presence  to  my  "brother  Bobus,  who  was  just  then  be 
ginning  his  career  at  the  Bar,  and  said,  '  Mind,  Bobus, 
when  you  are  Chancellor  I  shall  expect  one  of  your  best 
livings.'  'Oui,  moil  ami,'  said  Bobus,  'mais  d'abord  jc 
vous  ferai  commettre  toutes  les  bassesses  dont  les  pre- 
tres  sont  capables.'  On  which  Talleyrand,  throwing  up 
his  hands  and  eyes,  exclaimed,  with  a  shrug,  'Mais 
quelle  latitude  enorme ! ' ' 

The  conversation  then  turned  on  society  in  London, 
and  its  effect  upon  character.  "I  always  tell  Lady 
P—  —  she  has  preserved  the  two  impossible  concom 
itants  of  a  London  life — a  good  complexion  and  a  good 
heart.  Most  London  dinners  evaporate  in  whispers  to 
one's  next-door  neighbor.  I  make  it  a  rule  never  to 
speak  a  word  to  mine,  but  fire  across  the  table ;  though 
I  broke  it  once  when  I  heard  a  lady  who  sat  next  me, 
in  a  low,  sweet  voice,  say,  '  No  gravy,  sir.'  I  had  never 
seen  her  before,  but  I  turned  suddenly  round  and  said, 
'  Madam,  I  have  been  looking  for  a  person  who  disliked 
gravy  all  my  life  ;  let  us  swear  eternal  friendship. '  She 
looked  astonished,  but  took  the  oath,  and  what  is  better, 
kept  it.  You  laugh,  Miss  —  — ;  but  what  more  usual 
foundation  for  friendship,  let  me  ask,  than  similarity  of 
tastes  ?" 

Talking  of  tastes,  my  father  quite  shared  in  his  friend 
Mrs.  Opic's  for  light,  heat,  and  fragrance.  The  first 
—•^  was  almost  a  passion  with  him,  which  he  indulged  by 
means  of  little  tin  lamps  with  mutton-fat,  in  the  days 
of  his  poverty — these,  when  a  little  richer,  to  our  great 


230  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

joy,  were  exchanged  for  oil-lamps — and  lastly,  in  the 
days  of  his  wealth,  for  a  profusion  of  wax-lights.  The 
heat  of  his  patent  fire-places  has  been  mentioned,  and  his 
delight  in  flowers  was  extreme.  He  often  went  into  the 
garden  the  moment  he  was  dressed,  and  returned  with 
his  hands  full  of  roses,  to  place  them  on  the  plates  at 
breakfast.  He  liked  to  see  the  young  people  staying  in 
his  house  dressed  with  natural  flowers,  and  encouraged 
us  to  invent  all  sorts  of  flowery  ornaments,  such  as  ear 
rings  and  necklaces,  some  of  which  were  really  very 
graceful. 

The  following  are  some  fragments  of  my  father's  con 
versation  in  London: 

Some  one  asked  if  the  Bishop  of  —  -  was  going  to 
marry.  "Perhaps  he  may,"  said  my  father;  "yet 
how  can  a  bishop  marry  ?  How  can  he  flirt  ?  The 
most  he  can  say  is,  '  I  will  see  you  in  the  vestry  after 
service.' " 

"  Oh,  don't  read  those  twelve  volumes  till  they  are 
made  into  a  consomme  of  two.  Lord  Dudley  did  still 
better,  lie  waited  till  they  blew  over." 

Talking  of  tithes  :  "  It  is  an  atrocious  way  of  paying 
the  clergy.  The  custom  of  tithe  in  kind  will  seem  in 
credible  to  our  posterity ;  no  one  will  believe  in  the 
ramiferous  priest  officiating  in  the  cornfield." 

"  Our  friend  -  -  makes  all  the  country  smell  like 
Piccadilly." 

An  argument  arose,  in  which  my  father  observed  how 
many  of  the  most  eminent  men  of  the  world  had  been 
diminutive  in  person,  and  after  naming  several  among 
the  ancients,  he  added,  "Why,  look  there,  at  Jeffrey; 
and  there  is  my  little  friend  -  — ,  who  has  not  body 
enough  to  cover  his  mind  decently  with  ;  his  intellect  is 
improperly  exposed." 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  231 

"Oh,  doirt  mind  the  caprices  of  fashionable  women; 
they  are  as  gross  as  poodles  fed  on  milk  and  muffins." 

"  Fox  wrote  drop  by  drop." 

"  Simplicity  is  a  great  object  in  a  great  book ;  it  is 
not  wanted  in  a  short  one." 

"  You  will  generally  see  in  human  life  the  round  man 
and  the  angular  man  planted  in  the  wrong  hole ;  but 
the  Bishop  of  -  — ,  being  a  round  man,  has  fallen  into 
a  triangular  hole,  and  is  far  better  off  than  many  trian 
gular  men  who  have  fallen  into  round  holes." 

"The  great  charm  of  Sheridan's  speaking  was  his 
multifariousness  of  style." 

"When  I  took  my  Yorkshire  servants  into  Somer 
setshire,  I  found  that  they  thought  making  a  drink  out 
of  apples  was  a  tempting  of  Providence,  who  had  in 
tended  barley  to  be  the  only  natural  material  of  intoxi 
cation." 

"We  naturally  lose  illusions  as  we  get  older,  like 
teeth,  but  there  is  no  Cartwright  to  fit  a  new  set  into 
our  understandings.  I  have,  alas !  only  one  illusion 
left,  and  that  is  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury." 

Speaking  of  the  long  debates  in  the  House:  "Why 
will  not  people  remember  the  Flood  ?  If  they  had 
lived  before  it,  with  the  patriarchs,  they  might  have 
talked  any  stuff  they  pleased ;  but  do  let  them  remem 
ber  how  little  time  they  have  under  this  new  order  of 
things." 

"  The  charm  of  London  is  that  you  are  never  glad  or 
sorry  for  ten  minutes  together :  in  the  country  you  are 
the  one  and  the  other  for  weeks." 

"  There  is  a  New  Zealand  attorney  arrived  in  Lon 
don,  with  6s.  Scl.  tattooed  all  over  his  face." 

"  Yes,  he  has  spent  all  his  life  in  letting  down  empty 
buckets  into  empty  wells  ;  and  he  is  frittering  away  his 
ago,  in  trying  to  draw  them  up  again." 


232  MEMOIR  OF   THE  REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

"If  you  masthead  a  sailor  for  not  doing  Iris  duty, 
wliy  should  you  not  weathercock  a  parishioner  for  re 
fusing  to  pay  tithes  ?" 

"  How  is  -  -  ?"  "  He  is  not  very  well."  "  Why, 
what  is  the  matter?"  "Oh,  don't  you  know  he  has 
produced  a  couplet  ?  "When  our  friend  is  delivered  of 
a  couplet,  with  infinite  labor  and  pain,  he  takes  to  his 
"bed,  has  straw  laid  down,  the  knocker  tied  up,  expects 
his  friends  to  call  and  make  inquiries,  and  the  answer 
at  the  door  invariably  is,  '  Mr.  • —  -  and  his  little  coup 
let  are  as  well  as  can  be  expected.'  When  he  produces 
an  Alexandrine  he  keeps  his  bed  a  day  longer." 

"You  will  find  a  Scotchman  always  says  what  is 
undermost.  I,  on  the  contrary,  say  every  thing  that 
comes  uppermost,  and  have  all  sorts  of  bad  jokes  put 
upon  me  in  consequence.  An  American  published  a 
book,  and  declared  I  had  told  him  there  were  more  mad 
Quakers  in  lunatic  asylums  than  any  other  sect — quite 
an  invention  on  his  part.  Another  time  Prince  P.  M. 
published  my  conversations ;  so  when  I  next  met  him, 
I  inquired  whether  this  was  to  be  a  printed  or  manu 
script  one,  as  I  should  talk  accordingly.  He  did  his 
best  to  blush." 

One  evening,  when  drinking  tea  with  Mrs.  Austin, 
the  servant  entering  into  a  crowded  room,  with  a  boil 
ing  tea-kettle  in  his  hand,  it  seemed  doubtful,  nay,  im 
possible,  he  should  make  his  way  among  the  numerous 
groups ;  but,  on  the  first  approach  of  the  steaming  kettle, 
the  crowd  receded  on  all  sides,  my  father  among  the 
rest,  though  carefully  watching  the  progress  of  the  lad 
to  the  table:  "I  declare,"  said  he  (addressing  Mrs.  Aus 
tin),  "  a  man  who  wishes  to  make  his  way  in  life  could 
do  nothing  better  than  go  through  the  world  with  a  boil 
ing  tea-kettle  in  his  hand." 

"Never  neglect  your  fire-places:  I  have  paid  great 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.    SYDNEY    SMITH.  283 

attention  to  mine,  and  could  burn  you  all  out  in  a  mo 
ment.  Much  of  the  cheerfulness  of  life  depends  upon 
it.  Who  could  be  miserable  with  that  fire?  What 
makes  a  fire  so  pleasant  is,  I  think,  that  it  is  a  live 
thing  in  a  dead  room." 

"  Such  is  the  horror  the  French  have  of  our  cuisine, 
that  at  the  dinner  given  in  honor  of  Guizot  at  the 
Athenaeum,  they  say  his  cook  was  heard  to  exclaim, 
'Ah,  mon  pauvre  maitre!  je  no  le  reverrai  plus."1 

"Lord  AVenlock  told  me  that  his  ground-rent  cost 
him  five  pounds  a  foot;  that  is  about  the  price  of  a  Lon 
don  footman  six  foot  high — thirty  guineas  per  annum.'' 

"  I  believe  the  parallelogram  between  Oxford  Street, 
Piccadilly,  Regent  Street,  and  Hyde  Park,  incloses 
more  intelligence  and  human  ability,  to  say  nothing  of 
wealth  and  beauty,  than  the  world  has  ever  collected  in 
such  a  space  before." 

"When  I  praised  the  author  of  the  New  Poor  Law 
the  other  day,  three  gentlemen  at  table  took  it  to  them 
selves,  and  blushed  up  to  the  eyes." 

"Yes!  you  find  people  ready  enough  to  do  the  Sa 
maritan,  without  the  oil  and  twopence." 

"It  is  a  great  proof  of  shyness  to  crumble  bread  at 
dinner.  '  Oh,  I  see  you  are  afraid  of  me'  (turning  to  a 
young  lady  who  sat  by  him),  'you  crumble  your  bread.7 
I  do  it  when  I  sit  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  with 
both  hands  when  I  sit  by  the  Archbishop." 

Addressing  Rogers:  "My  dear  R.,  if  we  were  both 
in  America,  we  should  be  tarred  and  feathered;  and, 
lovely  as  we  are  by  nature,  I  should  be  an  ostrich  and 
you  an  emu." 

"I  once  saw  a  dressed  statue  of  Venus  in  a  serious 
house — the  Venus  Millinaria." 

"Ah,  you  flavor  every  thing;  you  arc  the  vanille  of 
society." 


234  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"I  think  it  was  Luttrell  wlio  used  to  say  '  —  — 's 
face  always  reminded  him  of  boiled  mutton  and  near 
relations.' " 

"  I  fully  intended  going  to  America ;  but  my  parish 
ioners  held  a  meeting,  and  came  to  a  resolution  that 
they  could  not  trust  me  with  the  canvas-back  ducks ; 
and  I  felt  they  were  right,  so  gave  up  the  project." 

"  Of  course,  if  I  ever  did  go  to  a  fancy  ball  at  all,  I 
should  go  as  a  Dissenter." 

"  Some  people  seem  to  be  born  out  of  their  proper 
century.  —  should  have  lived  in  the  Italian  Repub 

lics,  and  —  -  under  Charles  II." 

"My  living  in  Yorkshire  was  so  far  out  of  the  way, 
that  it  was  actually  twelve  miles  from  a  lemon." 

"Don't  you  know,  as  the  French  say,  there  are  three 
sexes — men,  women,  and  clergymen  ?" 

"One  of  my  great  objections  to  the  country  is,  that 
you  get  your  letters  but  once  a  day ;  here  they  come 
every  five  minutes." 

On  some  one  offering  him  oat-cake,  "No,  I  can't  ent 
oat-cake,  it  is  too  rich  for  me." 

"  Harrowgate  seemed  to  me  the  most  heaven-forgotten 
country  under  the  sun.  When  I  saw  it,  there  were  only 
nine  mangy  fir-trees  there  ;  and  even  they  all  leant  away 
from  it." 

Dining  at  Mr.  Grenville's,  he  as  usual  arrived  before 
the  rest  of  the  party ;  some  ladies  were  shortly  after 
announced ;  as  Mr.  Grenville,  with  his  graceful  dignity 
and  cheerfulness,  went  forward  to  receive  them,  my 
father,  looking  after  him,  exclaimed  to  Mr.  Panizzi, 
"  There,  that  is  the  man  from  whom  we  all  ought  to 
learn  how  to  grow  old!"  The  conversation  at  table 
turned  on  a  subject  lately  treated  of  in  Sir  Charles 
Ly ell's  book,  the  phenomena  which  the  earth  might 
present  to  the  geologists  of  some  future  period;  "Let 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  235 

us  imagine,"  said  my  father,  "an  excavation  on  the  site 
of  St.  Paul's.  Fancy  a  lecture,  by  the  Owen  of  some 
future  age,  on  the  thigh-Lone  of  a  Minor  Canon,  or  the 
tooth  of  a  Dean — the  form,  qualities,  the  knowledge, 
tastes,  propensities,  he  would  discover  from  them." 
And  off  he  went,  his  imagination  playing  on  this  idea 
in  every  possible  way. 

Some  one  spoke  of  the  state  of  financial  embarrass 
ment  of  the  London  University  at  that  time.  "Yes,  it 
is  so  great,  that  I  understand  they  have  already  seized 
011  the  air-pump,  the  exhausted  receiver,  and  galvanic 
batteries  ;  and  that  bailiffs  have  been  seen  chasing  the 
Professor  of  Modern  History  round  the  quadrangle." 

Conversing  in  the  evening,  with  a  small  circle,  round 
Miss  Berry's  tea-table  (who,  though  far  advanced  to 
ward  the  fourscore  years  and  ten  which  she  afterward 
attained,  was  still  remarkable  for  her  vigor  of  mind  and 
beauty  of  person),  my  father  observed  the  entrance  of  a 
no  less  remarkable  person,  both  for  talents  and  years, 
dressed  in  a  beautiful  crimson  velvet  gown ;  he  started 
up  to  meet  his  fine  old  friend,  exclaiming,  "Exactly 
the  color  of  my  preaching  cushion!"  and  leading  her 
forward  to  the  light,  he  pretended  to  be  lost  in  admira 
tion,  saying,  "I  really  can  hardly  keep  my  hands  off 
you;  I  shall  be  preaching  on  you,  I  fear,"  etc.,  and 
played  with  the  subject  to  the  infinite  amusement  of  his 
old  friend  and  the  little  circle  assembled  round  her. 

"  Playfair  was  certainly  the  most  delightful  philomath 
I  ever  knew." 

"Have  you  heard  of  jSfiebuhr's  discoveries?  All 
Roman,  history  reversed ;  Tarquin  turning  out  an  ex 
cellent  family  man,  and  Lucrctia  a  very  doubtful  char 
acter,  whom  Lady  -  -  would  not  have  visited." 

The  ladies  having  left  the  room,  at  a  dinner  at  Sir 
(I.  Philips's,  the  conversation  turned  on  the  black  pop- 


236  MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

illation  of  America.  My  father,  turning  to  an  eminent 
American  jurist,  who  was  here  some  years  ago,  "Pray, 
Mr.  -  — ,  tell  us  why  you  can't  live  on  better  terms 
with  your  "black  population."  "Why,  to  tell  you  the 
truth,  Mr.  Smith,  they  smell  so  abominably  that  we 
can't  bear  them  near  us."  "Possibly  not,"  said  my 
father,  "but  men  must  not  be  led  by  the  nose  in  that 
way :  if  you  don't  like  asking  them  to  dinner,  it  is 
surely  no  reason  why  you  should  not  make  citizens  of 
them. 

'Et  si  non  alium  late  jactaret  odorem. 
Civis  erat.' "  * 

"  Don't  talk  to  me  of  not  being  able  to  cough  a  speak 
er  down:  try  the  hooping-cough." 

Mr.  Monckton  Milnes  was  talking  to  Alderman  -  — , 
when  the  latter  turned  away:  "You  were  speaking,"' 
said  Sydney,  "to  the  Lord  Mayor  elect.  I  myself  felt 
in  his  presence  like  the  Roman  whom  Pyrrhus  tried  to 
frighten  with  an  elephant,  and  remained  calm." 

"When  so  showy  a  woman  as  Mrs.  -  —  appears  at 
a  place,  though  there  is  no  garrison  within  twelve  mile?, 
the  horizon  is  immediately  clouded  with  majors." 

"  To  take  Macaulay  out  of  literature  and  society,  and 
put  him  in  the  House  of  Commons,  is  like  taking  the 
chief  physician  out  of  London  during  a  pestilence." 

"How  bored  children  are  with  the  wisdom  of  Te- 
lemachus !  they  can't  think  why  Calypso  is  so  fond  of 
him." 

Some  one  observing  the  wonderful  improvement  in 
-  since  his  success,  "Ah!"  he  said,  "praise  is  the 
best  diet  for  us,  after  all." 

One  day,  Mr.  Eogers  took  Mr.  Moore  and  my  father 
home  in  his  carriage,  from  a  breakfast ;  and  insisted  on 

*  Virgil,  Georgics  ii.  1.32.     TMurus  in  the  original. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  237 

showing  them,  by  the  way,  Dryden's  house,  in  some  ob 
scure  street.  It  was  very  wet ;  the  house  looked  very 
much  like  other  old  houses ;  and  having  thin  shoes  on, 
they  both  remonstrated ;  but  in  vain.  Rogers  got  out, 
and  stood  expecting  them.  "  Oh  !  you  see  why  Hogers 
don't  mind  getting  out,"  exclaimed  my  father,  laughing 
and  leaning  out  of  the  carriage,  "  he  has  got  goloshes 
on — but,  Rogers,  lend  us  each  a  golosh,  and  we  will 
then  stand  on  one  leg,  and  admire  as  long  as  you 
please." 

"When  Prcscott  comes  to  England,  a  Caspian  Sea 
of  soup  awaits  him." 

"An  American  said  to  me,  "You  are  so  funny,  Mr. 
Smith  !  do  you  know,  you  remind  me  of  our  great  joker, 
Dr.  Chambeiiaquc.'  'I  am  much  honored,'  I  replied, 
'  but  I  was  not  aware  you  had  such  a  functionary  in  the 
United  States.'" 

At  Mr.  Romilly's  there  arose  a  discussion  on  the  In 
ferno  of  Dante,  and  the  tortures  he  had  invented.  "He 
may  be  a  great  poet,"  said  my  father,  "  but  as  to  inven 
tion,  I  consider  him  a  mere  bungler — no  imagination,  no 
knowledge  of  the  human  heart.  If  I  had  taken  it  in 
hand,  I  would  show  you  what  torture  really  was ;  for 
instance  (turning,  merrily,  to  his  old  friend  Mrs.  Marcet), 
you  should  be  doomed  to  listen,  for  a  thousand  years,  to 
conversations  between  Caroline  and  Emily,  where  Caro 
line  should  always  give  wrong  explanations  in  chemis 
try,  and  Emily  in  the  end  be  unable  to  distinguish  an 
acid  from  an  alkali.  You,  Macaulay,  let  me  consider  ? — 
oh,  you  should  be  dumb.  False  dates  and  facts  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne  should  forever  be  shouted  in  your 
ears  ;  all  liberal  and  honest  opinions  should  be  ridiculed 
in  your  presence ;  and  you  should  not  be  able  to  say  a 
single  word  during  that  period  in  their  defense."  "  And 
what  would  you  condemn  rr°.  to,  Mr.  Sydney  ?"  said  a 


238  MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

young  mother.  "Why,  you  should  forever  see  those 
three  sweet  little  girls  of  yours  on  the  point  of  falling 
down  stairs,  and  never  Ibe  able  to  save  them.  There, 
what  tortures  are  there  in  Dante  equal  to  these  ?" 

"Daniel  Webster  struck  me  much  like  a  steam-engine 
in  trowsers." 

"  When  I  began  to  thump  the  cushion  of  my  pulpit, 
on  first  coming  to  Foston,  as  is  my  wont  when  I  preach, 
the  accumulated  dust  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  made 
such  a  cloud,  that  for  some  minutes  I  lost  sight  of  my 
congregation." 

"Nothing  amuses  me  more  than  to  observe  the  utter 
want  of  perception  of  a  joke  in  some  minds.  Mrs. 
Jackson  called  the  other  day,  and  spoke  of  the  oppress 
ive  heat  of  last  week.  '  Heat,  ma'am  !'  I  said  ;  '  it  was 
so  dreadful  here,  that  I  found  there  was  nothing  left  for 
it  but  to  take  off  my  flesh  and  sit  in  my  bones.'  '  Take 
off  your  flesh  and  sit  in  your  bones,  sir !  Oh,  Mr.  Smith ! 
how  could  you  do  that  ?'  she  exclaimed,  with  the  utmost 
gravity.  '  Nothing  more  easy,  ma'am ;  come  and  see 
next  time.'  But  she  ordered  her  carriage,  and  evidently 
thought  it  a  very  unorthodox  proceeding." 

'"  Miss  —  — ,  too,  the  other  day,  walking  round  the 
grounds  at  Combe  Florcy,  exclaimed,  '  Oh,  why  do  you 
chain  up  that  fine  Newfoundland  dog,  Mr.  Smith  T 
'Because  it  has  a  passion  for  breakfasting  on  parish 
boys.'  'Parish  boys!'  she  exclaimed,  'docs  he  really 
cat  boys,  Mr.  Smith?'  'Yes,  he  devours  them,  but 
tons  and  all.'  Her  face  of  horror  made  me  die  of  laugh 
ing." 

A  most  curious  instance  of  this  slow  perception  of  hu 
mor  occurred  once  in  Brook  Street,  where  a  gentleman 
of  some  rank  dined  at  our  house,  with  a  large  party,  of 
which  my  father  and  Mr.  Luttrell  formed  a  portion.  My 
father  was  in  high  spirits,  and  in  one  of  his  happiest 


MEMOIK   OF   THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  239 

veins ;  and  much  brilliant  conversation  passed  around 
from  Mr.  Luttrell  and  others.  Mr.  -  -  sat  through  it 
all  with  the  utmost  gravity.  This  seemed  only  to  stim 
ulate  my  father,  who  became  more  and  more  brilliant, 
till  the  table  was  in  a  perfect  roar  of  laughter.  The 
servants  even,  forgetting  all  decorum,  were  obliged  to 
turn  away  to  conceal  their  mirth.  Mr.  -  -  alone  sat 
unmoved,  and  gazing  with  solemn  wonder  at  the  scene 
around.  Luttrell  was  so  struck  by  this  that  he  said, 
"  Mr.  -  -  was  a  natural  phenomenon  whom  he  must 
observe ;"  so  letting  the  side-dishes  pass  by,  he  took 
out  his  eye-glass  to  watch.  At  last  my  father  accident 
ally  struck  out  a  subject  (which,  for  social  reasons,  I 
must  not  give,  though  it  was  inimitable),  which  touched 
the  right  spring,  and  he  could  resist  no  longer,  but  act 
ually  laughed  out.  Luttrell  shouted  victory  in  my  ear ; 
and  resumed  his  wonted  attention  to  the  dinner,  saying, 
he  had  never  witnessed  so  curious  a  scene. 

The  conversation  turned  upon  pictures.  "I  like 
pictures,  without  knowing  any  thing  about  them  ;  but 
I  hate  coxcombry  in  the  fine  arts,  as  well  as  in  any 
thing  else.  I  got  into  dreadful  disgrace  with  Sir  G.  B. 
once,  who,  standing  before  a  picture  at  Bowood,  ex 
claimed,  turning  to  me,  '  Immense  breadth  of  light  and 
shade!'  I  innocently  said,  'Yes;  about  an  inch  and  a 
half.'  He  gave  me  a  look  that  ought  to  have  killed  me." 

At  a  large  dinner-party  my  father,  or  some  one  else, 
announced  the  death  of  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart ;  one  whose 
name  ever  brings  with  it  feelings  of  respect  for  his  tal 
ents  and  high  character.  The  news  was  received  with 
so  much  levity  by  a  lady  of  rank,  who  sat  by  him,  that 
he  turned  round  and  said,  "  Madam,  when  we  are  told 

of  the  death  of  so  creat  a  man  as  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart, 
o  o 

it  is  usual,  in  civilized  society,  to  look  grave  for  at  least 
the  space  of  five  seconds." 


240  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

"They  do  nothing  in  Ireland  as  they  would  elsewhere. 
When  the  Dublin  mail  was  stopped  and  robbed,  my 
brother  declares  that  a  sweet  female  voice  was  heard  be 
hind  the  hedge,  exclaiming,  '  Shoot  the  gintleman,  then, 
Patrick  dear!'" 

We  were  all  assembled  to  look  at  a  turtle  that  had 
been  sent  to  the  house  of  a  friend,  when  a  child  of  the 
party  stooped  down  and  began  eagerly  stroking  the  shell 
of  the  turtle.  "  Why  are  you  doing  that,  B —  —  ?"  said 
my  father.  "  Oh,  to  please  the  turtle."  ;<  Why,  child, 
you  might  as  well  stroke  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's,  to 
please  the  Dean  and  Chapter." 

Some  one  naming  -  -  as  not  very  orthodox,  "Ac 
cuse  a  man  of  being  a  Socinian,  and  it  is  all  over  with 
him ;  for  the  country  gentlemen  all  think  it  has  some 
thing  to  do  with  poaching." 

"  I  hate  bare  walls ;  so  I  cover  mine,  you  see,  with 
pictures.  The  public,  it  must  be  owned,  treat  them 
with  great  contempt ;  and  even  Hibbert,  who  has  been 
brought  up  in  the  midst  of  fine  pictures,  and  might  know 
better,  never  will  admire  them.  But  look  at  that  sea- 
piece,  now  ;  what  would  you  desire  more  ?  It  is  true, 
the  moon  in  the  corner  was  rather  dingy  when  I  first 
bought  it ;  so  I  had  a  new  moon  put  in  for  half-a-crown, 
and  now  I  consider  it  perfect." 

Of  my  father's  conversation  in  London,  where  of 
course  such  powers  were  most  excited  and  most  brill 
iant  (except  in  these  slight  specimens,  principally  fur 
nished  by  the  kindness  of  a  friend),  I  have  hardly  at 
tempted  to  give  any  idea ;  partly  because  the  docu 
ments  that  would  best  have  enabled  me  to  do  so  (his 
daily  letters,  when  absent,  to  my  mother)  have  not 
been  preserved — partly  because  of  such  journals  so  little 
can  and  ought  to  be  published,  that  they  serve  but  to 
remind  one  of  Sancho  Panza's  feast,  where  a  splendid 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  241 

list  of  names  promises  every  thing,  and  produces  no 
thing —  and  last,  though  not  least,  as  his  friend  Lord 
John  Russell  observes,  because  it  is  hardly  possible  to 
describe  his  manner,  or  convey  the  slightest  idea  of  what 
his  powers  really  were,  in  their  most  brilliant  moments, 
to  those  who  have  never  witnessed  them.  Lord  John 
adds — and  all  who  knew  my  father  will  agree  with  his 
conclusion  —  that  "  in  his  peculiar  style  he  has  never 
been  equaled,  and  perhaps  will  not  be  surpassed."  I 
observe,  with  pleasure,  that  every  sketch  which  has  ap 
peared  of  him  has  laid  great  stress  upon  the  wonderful 
degree  of  truth,  wisdom,  and  bold  illustration,  that  was 
often  concealed  in  these  ludicrous  pictures  and  apparent 
nonsense ;  and  which  not  only  made  them  valuable,  but 
prevented  their  ever  palling,  or  degenerating  into  mere 
buffoonery. 

About  this  period  began  his  contest  with  the  Eccle 
siastical  Commission,  which  lasted  nearly  four  years, 
and  was  carried  on  principally  in  a  series  of  letters  ad 
dressed  to  Archdeacon  Singleton.  In  these  letters,  after 
touching  slightly  upon  the  injustice  of  forming  such  a 
Commission  without  any  one  to  protect  the  interests 
of  the  inferior  clergy — on  the  permanent  and  arbitrary 
powers  granted  to  the  Commission,  under  a  Whig  min 
istry —  on  the  inclination  the  Commission  evinced  to 
appropriate  the  patronage,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
were  claiming  the  honors  of  martyrdom  (d  propos  to 
which  he  introduced  the  episode  of  the  old  chronicle 
of  Dort) — touching  on  these,  together  with  many  other 
clauses  very  oppressive  to  the  clergy  (which  were  after 
ward  given  up),  he  proceeds  to  enforce  two  princi 
ples.  First,  that  if  the  laity  desire  an  Establishment 
into  which  birth,  wealth,  station,  talent,  education,  and 
character  should  flow ;  and  bestow  on  it  a  revenue 
which,  if  equally  divided,  would  hardly  piano  the  clergy 
Voi  T  T 


242  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

on  a  footing  with  the  upper  servants  of  a  nobleman's 
family,  and  would  not,  according  to  the  proposed  plan 
of  spoliation,  be  an  addition  of  more  than  £5.  12s.  6%cl. 
per  man — payment  by  hope,  or  inequality  of  division, 
were  the  only  means  of  obtaining  the  desired  end ;  and 
the  prizes  in  the  lottery  must  be  left.  Or,  if  the  in 
equality  in  some  instances  was  too  great,  ,the  remedy 
should  be  applied  where  the  greatest  evil  existed.  Sec 
ondly,  that  the  Commission,  by  attacking  vested  in 
terests  during  the  lifetime  of  the  incumbents,  were 
not  only  guilty  of  great  present  injustice,  but  were  ad 
mitting  a  most  dangerous  precedent,  and  overturn 
ing  a  principle  that  all  governments  had  hitherto  re 
spected. 

These  letters,  which  by  many  have  been  considered 
as  evincing  more  talent  than  almost  any  thing  he  has 
written,  produced  considerable  effect  at  the  time ;  and 
the  many  private  letters  I  possess,  as  well  as  the  tes 
timony  of  the  public  press,  show  that  public  opinion 
was  strongly  with  him  —  that  these  measures  were 
changes,  but  not  reforms  —  that  they  contributed  no 
thing  to  the  public  good — and  that  they  diminished  no 
thing  of  the  public  hostility  to  the  Church.  How  it  term 
inated  is  well  known.  He  concludes  the  controversy 
with  this  tribute  to  his  old  friend  and  opponent,  Lord 
John  Russell :  "  You  know  very  well,  my  dear  Lord, 
in  criticising  parts  of  your  Church  reform,  I  mean  no 
thing  unkind  or  unfriendly  to  you  personally.  I  have 
known  you  for  thirty  years ;  and  I  do  not  believe  that 
in  his  country,  full  of  good  men,  there  is  one  more  hon 
est,  upright,  and  intrepid  than  yourself."  My  father, 
I  find,  states  that  he  has  the  most  honorable  testi 
mony  from  Lord  John  himself,  that  in  conducting  this 
dispute  he  never  exceeded  the  bounds  of  free  discus 
sion  :  and  that  he  was  influenced  by  no  motive  that  did 


MEMOIR  OF    THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  243 

not  affect  equally  the  whole  body  to  which  he  belonged, 
and  whose  interests  he  felt  bound  to  defend.* 

I  am  aware  that  these  letters  have  afforded  plausible 
ground  for  the  insinuations  that  were  made  by  some 
few,  that  my  father,  a  "Whig  all  his  life,  deserted  his 
party,  and  attacked  his  friends ;  and,  a  reformer,  op 
posed  reform  the  moment  it  affected  his  own  interest. 
These  are  grave  charges,  but  are  best  met  by  a  few 
facts.  He  attacked  the  Whigs  when  they  were  in 
power,  and  had  every  thing  to  bestow ;  when  they  were 
poor  and  powerless,  he  was  ever  found  fighting  at  their 
side.  This  does  not  look  mean  and  base.  He  opposed 
not  reform,  but  this  reform ;  and  this  reform  he  had 
opposed  upon  the  same  principle,  twenty  years  before, 
in  the  Edinburgh.  Review,  under  a  Tory  administration, 
when  in  his  wildest  dreams  ho  had  never  hoped  to  be 
a  Canon  of  St.  Paul's,  t  He  did  not,  therefore,  change 
his  opinions  with  his  position.  It  did  not  affect  his 
personal  interests,  as  he  wanted  the  patronage  neither 
for  himself  nor  his  family ;  and  the  noble  use  he  made 
of  valuable  patronage  when  it  did  come  into  his  hands, 
must  sufficiently  exonerate  him  from  the  suspicion  of 
acting  from  interested  motives  in  the  eyes  of  any  can 
did  man. 

The  following  petition  from  the  Rev.  Sydney  Smith, 

*  I  might  add  to  this  statement,  that  I  have  very  lately  received 
from  Lord  John  Russell  the  most  generous  praise  of  these  very  letters 
(always  excepting  a  well-known  passage,  which  he  considered  unjust) ; 
and  Lord  John's  last  act  has  indeed  so  proved  its  injustice,  that  I  feel 
sure  my  father,  were  he  alive,  would  be  the  first  to  retract  it,  and  to 
do  honor  to  the  sacrifice  that  has  been  made  by  his  friend. 

f  There  is  also  among  his  papers  an  amusing  fragment  on  the  sub 
ject  of  tithes,  written  about  the  period  that  question  was  being  dis 
cussed,  which,  as  it  is  but  a  fragment,  is  hardly  worth  inserting.  But 
in  this  again  he  speaks  strongly  of  the  necessity  of  inequality  of  pay 
ment,  in  order  to  support  an  Establishment  so  ill  provided  for  as  the 
Church  of  England  ;  showing  still  further  how  consistent  he  was  from 
first  to  last  in  his  opinions  on  this  subject  as  well  as  others. 


244  MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.  SYDNEY    SMITH. 

was  presented  and  read  to  the  House  of  Lords  by  the 
Hon.  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Rochester,  July,  1840. 

"  To  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  Spiritual  and 
Temporal  in  Parliament  assembled. 

"The  humlble  petition  of  the  Kev.  Sydney  Smith, 
Canon  Residentiary  of  St.  Paul's,  humbly  showeth — 
That  your  petitioner  has  bestowed  considerable  thought 
and  attention  upon  the  subject  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Duties  and  Revenues  Bill,  and  prays  that  the  same 
may  not  pass  into  a  law ;  for  the  following  reasons : 

"  The  Bill  applies  to  the  spiritual  destitution  of  the 
Church,  that  which  was  left  for  the  ornaments  and  re 
wards  of  the  Church  ;  and  in  this  way  gets  rid  of  the 
burden  of  supporting  the  clergy,  by  tampering  with  the 
sacred  laws  of  property ;  making,  at  the  same  time,  the 
multitude  believe  that  they  are  reforming  abuses,  while 
they  are  only  evading  duties  and  weakening  principles. 

"  By  lessening  the  rewards  of  the  Church,  it  prevents 
men  of  capital  from  entering  into  it;  and  makes  the 
whole  wealth  of  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  service 
of  the  Church  less,  instead  of  increasing  it. 

"  The  whole  mass  of  property  which  the  Bill  proposes 
to  confiscate,  will  make  the  poor  clergy  a  very  little 
less  poor,  while  its  confiscation  destroys  the  powerful 
stimulus  of  hope,  at  the  beginning  of  an  ecclesiastical 
life.  Two-thirds  of  the  present  deans  and  prebendaries 
have  been  curates  and  small  vicars :  they  would,  at  the 
lowest  period  of  their  fortunes,  have  refused  to  barter 
their  hope  of  future  competence,  for  the  addition  of  a 
few  pounds  to  their  income  ;  and  this  is  most  unques 
tionably  the  state  of  feeling  among  the  lower  clergy  at 
the  present  moment. 

"The  whole  of  the  Bill  supposes  that  deans  and 
chapters  have  made  a  worse  use  of  their  patronage  than 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  245 

bishops,  and  tliis  is  directly  contrary  to  truth.  But 
what  is  true  of  this  Bill  is,  that  one  order  in  the  Church 
who  have  no  votes  in  Parliament,  have  been  completely 
sacrificed  to  those  who  have  votes — that  deans  and  pre 
bendaries,  carefully  excluded  from  the  Commission,  have 
been  condemned  to  confiscation — and  that  the  Prelate 
Commissioners  have  not  sacrificed  one  shilling  of  the 
aggregate  income  of  the  bishops  to  those  spiritual  desti 
tutions  of  the  Church,  which  they  feel  so  strongly,  but 
relieve  with  property  not  their  own. 

"  The  Bill  destroys  many  ecclesiastical  offices,  which, 
with  a  little  care  and  thought,  might  have  been  made 
eminently  useful  to  literature  ;  to  the  present  plans  of 
national  education ;  to  the  care  of  dioceses  in  the  de 
cay  and  old  age  of  bishops,  and  to  the  general  support 
of  episcopal  authority ;  or,  what  is  of  more  importance 
(in  the  present  unrepresented  and  unsupported  state  of 
the  parochial  clergy),  to  the  checks  upon  episcopal  au 
thority. 

"  This  Bill  habituates  the  Legislature  to  the  easy 
and  inviting  power  of  tampering  with  the  property  of 
the  Church.  It  is  utterly  impossible  to  believe  that 
this  will  be  the  last  and  the  worst  act  of  that  nature. 

"The  law,  as  it  now  stands,  enables  dignified  cler 
gymen  to  bestow  their  patronage  on  their  children  and 
relations,  who  may  be  deserving  of  it.  Under  this  sanc 
tion  they  have  given  to  their  sons  very  expensive  edu 
cations  at  the  Universities.  The  present  Bill  destroys 
these  expectations ;  sets  at  nought  vested  rights  ;  and, 
instead  of  applying  this  provision  to  future  members  of 
chapters,  cuts  off  from  their  rights  the  ancient  members 
of  those  bodies,  who  have  laid  out  their  whole  plan  of 
life  upon  the  faith  of  laws  unimpugned  and  unrcpcaled 
for  centuries  ;  and  this  appears  to  your  Petitioner  to  be 
a  gross  act  of  spoliation  and  injustice,  and  contrary  to 


246  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

the  express  provisions  and  arrangements  of  the  Com 
missioners  themselves. 

"To  give  to  every  clergyman  who  has  gone  through 
the  expense  of  an  English  University,  and  who  is  mar 
ried  and  settled  in  the  country,  the  income  which  they 
ought  in  decency  and  in  justice  to  receive,  would  re 
quire,  not  only  the  confiscation  of  all  the  cathedral  and 
episcopal  property,  but  some  millions  of  money  in  addi 
tion.  A  church  provided  for  as  ours  now  is,  can  obtain 
a  well-educated  and  respectable  clergy  only  by  those 
hopes  which  are  excited  by  the  unequal  division  and 
lottery  of  preferment.  This  is  the  real  cause  which 
has  brought  capital  and  respectability  into  the  English 
Church,  and  peopled  it  with  the  well-educated  sons  of 
gentlemen — an  object  of  the  greatest  importance  in  a 
rich  country  like  England.  Nothing  would  so  rapidly 
and  certainly  insure  the  degradation  of  the  Church  of 
England,  as  the  equal  division  of  all  its  revenues  among 
all  its  members. 

"For  these  reasons,  your  Petitioner  believes  the  Bill 
in  question  (however  well  intended)  to  be  founded  on 
a  very  short-sighted  policy,  and  that  it  will  entail  great 
evils  upon  a  Church  no  longer  unfavorable  to  the  civil 
liberties  of  mankind — as  yet  untainted  by  fanaticism 
— carried  forward  by  the  labors  of  a  highly  improved 
clergy — and  now  become  as  useful  and  as  active  as  any 
church  establishment  which  the  world  has  yet  seen. 

"  This,  as  it  seems  to  your  Petitioner,  is  the  last  of 
all  our  institutions  upon  which  an  experiment  so  daring 
and  so  dangerous  ought  to  be  tried.  For  these  rea 
sons,  your  Petitioner  humbly  prays  that  the  Ecclesias 
tical  Duties  and  Revenues  Bill  may  not  pass  into  a  law. 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

In  the  previous  year,  a  statue  having  been  erected 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  247 

at  Newcastle,  in  honor  of  Earl  Grey,  my  father  was 
requested  to  write  the  inscription  for  it.  He  sent  the 
following ;  but  as  it  did  not  entirely  meet  the  views  of 
all  the  subscribers,  it  was  not  adopted ;  though  I  have 
reason  to  believe  it  was  much  approved  of  by  his  family. 

TO  CHARLES,  EARL  GREY,  E.G., 
OF  JIOWICK,  IN  NORTHUMBERLAND, 

THIS  MONUMENT, 
IN  A  SPIRIT  OP  SOLEMN  RESPECT 

AND  DEEP  GRATITUDE, 
IS  ERECTED,  BY  MANY  OF  HIS  FELLOW-CITIZENS. 

THEY  HAVE  SEEN  HIM  THROUGH  A  LONG  LIFE 
DEDICATING  HIS  FINE  TALENTS  TO  PROMOTE  THE  BEST  INTERESTS 

OF  MANKIND, 

AND,  IN  EVIL  DAYS,  WITH  HIGH  MORAL  COURAGE 
DEFENDING  THE  ALMOST  EXTINGUISHED  LIBERTIES  OF  ENGLAND! 

THEY  OWE  TO  HIM  THAT  MEMORABLE  REFORM, 

WHICH,  BLENDING  FREEDOM  WITH  LOYALTY  AND  ORDER, 

HAS  INFUSED  FRESH  LIFE  AND  ENERGY  INTO  ALL 

OUR  INSTITUTIONS; 

A  REFORM  WHICH  HE  PLANNED  IN  HIS  YOUTH, 
AND  BROUGHT  TO  TRIUMPHANT  PERFECTION  IN  HIS  ADVANCED  AGE. 

REMEMBERING  THESE  THINGS, 
THEY  HAVE  DEEMED  IT  AN  ACT  OF  SACRED  JUSTICE 

TO  RECORD,  BY  A  PUBLIC  MONUMENT, 
THEIR  ADMIRATION  OF  THIS  GREAT  STATESMAN: 

NOT  WITHOUT  HOPE 

THAT  THE  YOUNG,  SEEING  WHAT  THOSE  QUALITIES  ARE 
WHICH  COMMAND  THE  GRATITUDE  OF  MANKIND, 
MAY  STRIVE  TO  BE  AS  GOOD  AND  PURE  AS  HE 

WHOSE    IMAGE    IS    HERE    PLACED    BEFORE    THEIR    EYES. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Visit  to  Combe  Florey. — Kindness  to  Grandchildren. — Sudden  Wealth. 
— Recollections  of  his  Parishioners  at  Foston. — Death  of  Lord  Hol 
land:  his  Portrait. — Letter  to  Mr.  Webster. — Sketch  of  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes. — Letter  of  Mr.  Grenville. — Visit  from  Mr.  Moore, 
and  Verses. — Bestows  the  Living  of  Edmonton  on  Mr.  Tate's  Son. 
— Letter  to  Mrs.  Sydney  Smith. — Address  of  Parishioners,  and  An 
swer. — Letter  of  Mrs.  Marcet. — Receipt  for  making  every  day  hap 
py. — Definition  of  Happiness. — Petition  to  the  American  Congress 
in  1843. — Effects. — Speech  from  Mr.  Ticknor. — Letter  from  Mr. 
Wainwright. — Abuse  and  Gifts  from  America. — Effect  of  Preaching 
in  old  Age. — Letter  of  Miss  Edgeworth. — Correspondence  with  Sir 
R.  Peel. — Extract  from  Journal  with  Anecdotes. 

IN  the  summer  we  went  again  to  spend  some  months 
with  my  father  at  Combe  Florey,  which  every  year 
became  more  beautiful  under  his  fostering  care.  His 
love  of  children  I  have  before  alluded  to ;  and  particu 
larly  of  his  little  grandchildren,  whose  happiness  he 
delighted  to  promote.  He  hardly  ever  dressed  in  a 
morning  without  having  them  round  him  to  assist  him ; 
or  to  play  at  shaving  his  table  with  his  shaving-brush 
and  huge  wooden  bowl,  which  still  remained,  though 
the  reign  of  Bunch  had  ceased.  Among  these  grand 
children  was  an  odd,  clever  little  girl,  about  five  years 
old,  who  amused  him  much  by  her  peculiarities ;  one  of 
which  was,  that  she  insisted  upon  understanding  every 
thing  she  heard,  and  that  when  baffled,  as  she  often 
necessarily  was,  she  took  to  roaring  and  kicking.  On 
one  of  these  occasions,  he  was  walking  round  his  gar 
den  with  his  two  arms  swung  behind  over  his  black 
crutch-stick  (his  usual  manner  of  walking),  and  hearing 
these  sounds  from  his  merry  little  favorite,  he  stopped 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  249 

under  tlie  open  window,  and  called  out,  "  What  is  the 
matter  with  my  little  girl?"  "  Oh,"  said  her  mother, 
"  she  can  not  understand  something  about  the  He 
brews.  I  have  tried  to  explain  it  to  her ;  but  as  she 
has  lost  her  temper,  I  have  told  her  she  must  wait  till 
she  is  a  little  older."  He  looked  excessively  amused 
at  the  mental  ambition  of  the  five-years-old,  but  walked 
off  in  silence.  Two  hours  after,  the  mother  found  him 
closeted  with  the  little  culprit  in  his  favorite  library, 
in  his  large  arm-chair,  with  the  child  on  his  knee,  with 
maps,  dictionary,  and  books  piled  around  him ;  he  ex 
plaining  and  she  listening  with  apparently  equal  pleas 
ure,  till  the  difficulty  was  overcome,  and  the  child  satis 
fied.  I  must  add,  in  justice  to  the  little  girl,  that 
though  she  has  retained  her  love  of  investigation,  she 
has  fortunately  left  off  the  habit  of  roaring  and  kicking 
under  mental  difficulties. 

The  sudden  death  of  his  youngest  brother  Courtenay 
about  this  time  (whose  debt  of  thirty  pounds  he  had 
paid  with  so  much  difficulty  at  college  fifty  years  be 
fore)  without  a  will,  put  him  in  possession  of  the  third 
part  of  the  very  large,  but  to  himself  useless,  fortune, 
which  he  had  accumulated  in  India ;  and  thus,  as  my 
father  has  said,  "in  my  grand  climacteric  I  became  un 
expectedly  a  rich  man."  Having  the  means  of  spend 
ing  now,  he  spent  as  liberally  as  if  he  had  been  used  to 
wealth  all  his  life ;  for  his  rigid  economy  in  poverty 
had  never  the  effect  of  making  him  penurious. 

This  summer,  when  traveling  through  Yorkshire,  I 
went  with  my  children  to  see  our  old  haunts  at  Foston ; 
and  it  was  very  gratifying  to  find,  though  nearly  ten 
years  had  elapsed  since  he  left  them,  how  fresh  my 
father's  memory  was  still  in  the  hearts  of  his  villagers. 
From  almost  every  cottage  some  one  came  out  to  greet 
me,  and  to  remind  me  of  some  saying,  or  some  act  of 

L* 


250  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

kindness,  or  to  show  me  his  parting  gift,  or  to  remem 
ber  how  he  "  doctored"  them,  and  to  lament  his  loss. 
And  as  to  old  Molly  Mills,  who  was  still  alive,  it  was 
quite  affecting  to  see  the  mixture  of  joy  and  sorrow  in 
her  face,  as  she  recalled  old  stories,  or  thought  of  her 
present  loss — "  the  smile  on  her  lip,  and  the  tear  in  her 
eye."  I  felt  these  were  humble,  but  not  the  less  pre 
cious  tributes  to  his  character. 

Each  year  now  thinned  the  ranks  of  the  great  men 
with  whom  he  had  begun  life — men  not  only  endeared 
to  him  by  social  intercourse,  but  by  that  deep  interest 
which  a  struggle  for  the  same  cause  during  so  many 
years  usually  inspires.  But  among  these  losses,  none 
ever  fell  more  deeply  and  heavily  on  his  heart  than  that 
of  Lord  Holland.  He  loved  him  (as  indeed  all  did  who 
had  the  privilege  of  knowing  him  intimately),  and  he 
felt  deeply  his  debt  of  gratitude  to  him  in  early  life. 
Lord  Holland's  last  illness  was,  I  believe,  short ;  and 
on  his  dressing-table  were  found  these  few  lines,  which 
were  sent  to  me  by  his  sister,  Miss  Fox,  after  his 
death : 

"  Nephew  of  Fox,  and  friend  of  Grey — 

Enough  my  meed  of  fame 
If  those  who  deign'd  to  observe  me  say 
I  injured  neither  name." 

In  a  letter  to  Mrs.  M.,  one  of  our  oldest  friends,  he 
says,  speaking  of  Lord  Holland's  death — "  It  is  indeed 
a  great  loss  to  me ;  but  I  have  learned  to  live,  as  a 
soldier  does  in  war,  expecting  that  on  any  one  moment 
the  best  and  the  dearest  may  be  killed  before  his  eyes. 
...  I  have  gout,  asthma,  and  seven  other  maladies, 
but  am  otherwise  very  well. — SYDNEY  SMITH." 

I  see  among  my  father's  papers  a  sketch  of  Lord  Hol 
land,  from  which  I  shall  make  some  extracts,  as,  I 
trust,  they  can  only  give  pleasure. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  251 

"A  Portrait. 

11  Great  powers  of  reasoning,  great  quickness  and  in 
genuity  of  proof,  and  a  memory  in  the  highest  degree 
retentive ;  a  knowledge  varied  and  extensive,  and  in 
English  history  and  constitutional  law  profound.  .  .  . 
An  invincible  hatred  of  tyranny  and  oppression,  the 
most  ardent  love  of  public  happiness,  and  attachment 
to  public  rights.  His  conversation  was  lively  and  in 
cessant.  .  .  . 

"As  a  speaker,  he  wanted  words,  which  he  was  often 
forced  to  stop  for ;  and  he  was  too  slow ;  but  he  atoned 
for  these  defects  by  sense,  knowledge,  simplicity,  logic, 
vehemence,  and  unblemished  character.  There  never 
existed  in  any  human  being  a  better  heart,  or  one  more 
punned  from  all  the  bad  passions,  more  abounding  in 
charity  and  compassion,  or  which  seemed  to  be  so 
created  as  a  refuge  to  the  helpless  and  the  oppressed. 

*  -:£  #•  *  *  *  *  * 

"  He  was  very  acute  in  the  discernment  of  charac 
ter  ;  more  so,  I  can  not  help  thinking,  than  any  public 
man  of  his  time  whom  it  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  ob 
serve.  He  was  one  of  the  most  consistent  and  steady 
politicians  living  in  any  day ;  in  whose  life,  exceeding 
sixty-five  years,  there  was  no  doubt,  varying,  nor 
shadow  of  change.  It  was  one  great,  incessant,  and 
unrewarded  effort  to  resist  oppression,  promote  justice, 
and  restrain  the  abuse  of  power." 


When  Mr.  Webster  was  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs 
for  the  United  States,  my  father  heard  it  reported  from 
America  that  an  accidental  mistake  he  had  made,  in 
introducing  Mr.  Webster,  on  his  coming  to  this  country 
some  time  before  (I  believe,  to  Lord  Brougham),  under 
the  name  of  Mr.  Clay,  was  intentional,  and  by  way  of 


252  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

joke.  Annoyed  that  so  much  impertinence  and  bad 
taste  should  be  imputed  to  him,  he  wrote  a  few  lines 
of  explanation  to  Mr.  Webster,  to  which  he  received 
the  following  answer : 

"WASHINGTON,  1841. 
"MY  DEAR  SlR, 

"  Though  exceedingly  delighted  to  hear  from  you, 
I  am  yet  much  pained  by  the  contents  of  your  note ; 
not  so  much  however  as  I  should  be,  were  I  not  able 
to  give  a  peremptory  denial  to  the  whole  report.  I 
never  mentioned  the  incident  to  which  you  refer,  as  a 
joke  of  yours — far  from  it ;  nor  did  I  mention  it  as 
any  thing  extraordinary. 

"My  dear,  good  friend,  do  not  think  me  such  a 

as  to  quote  or  refer  to  any  incident  falling  out  between 
you  and  me  to  your  disadvantage.  The  pleasure  of 
your  acquaintance  is  one  of  the  jewels  I  brought  home 
with  me.  I  had  read  of  you,  and  read  you,  for  thirty 
years.  I  was  delighted  to  meet  you,  and  to  have  all  I 
knew  of  you  refreshed  and  brightened  by  the  charms 
of  your  conversation.  If  any  son  of  -  -  asserts  that 
either  through  ill-will,  or  love  of  vulgar  gossip,  I  tell 
such  things  of  you  as  you  suppose,  I  pray  you  let  him 
be  knocked  down  instanter.  And  be  assured,  my  dear 
Sir,  I  never  spoke  of  you  in  my  life  but  with  gratitude, 
respect,  and  attachment.  D.  WEBSTER." 

My  father  wrote  in  answer : 

"Many  thanks,  my  dear  Sir,  for  your  obliging  letter. 
I  think  better  of  myself  because  you  think  well  of  me. 
If,  in  the  imbecility  of  old  age,  I  forgot  your  name  for 
a  moment,  the  history  of  America  will  hereafter  be 
more  tenacious  in  its  recollections — tenacious,  because 
you  are  using  your  eloquent  wisdom  to  restrain  the 
high  spirit  of  your  countrymen  within  the  limits  of 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  253 

justice,  and  are  securing  to  two  kindred  nations,  wlio 
ought  to  admire  and  benefit  eacli  other,  the  blessings 
of  peace.     How  can  great  talents  be  applied  to  nobler 
ends,  or  what  existence  can  be  more  truly  splendid  ? 
"Ever  sincerely  yours, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 


I  have  mentioned  that  my  father,  for  reasons  already 
given,  had  made  a  collection  of  his  writings  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review  and  elsewhere ;  and  retracted  what 
little  he  felt  he  had  been  led  by  party  prejudice  to  say 
unjustly ;  and  I  can  not  resist  inserting  here  a  short 
passage  from  a  French  Review  (I  believe,  the  "Revue 
des  Deux  Mondes"),  because  I  think  it  is  a  trait  in  his 
character  that  has  been  unnoticed  by  his  countrymen. 

"  Quoi  de  plus  frequent  que  de  se  dire,  au  fond  du 
coeur,  j'ai  ete  trop  loin — ceci  n'etait  pas  vrai,  ceci  etait 
injuste  ?  mais  quoi  de  plus  rare  que  de  rimprimcr  ? 
Voila  ce  que  Sydney  a  noblement  fait:  trente  ans 
apres  ses  regards  rencontrent  line  plaisanterie  qu'un 
juge  moins  severe  de  ses  propres  fautes  aurait  pu 
croire  innocente,  il  ne  pent  s'empecher  de  dire,  '  II  n'y 
a  rien  qui  depare  plus  les  letters  de  Plymley  que  cette 
attaque  dirigee.  contre  M.  Bourne,  qui  est  une  personne 
d'honneur  et  de  talent ;  mais  voila  oil  menent  les  mau- 
vaises  passions  de  1'esprit  de  parti.'  Castlereagh  n'etait 
pas  un  homme  venal,  ccpendant  il  1'avait  represente 
comme  capable  de  recevoir  de  toutes  mains ;  '  Je  1'ai 
injustemeiit  accuse,'  avoue-t-il  franchement.  II  cst  beau 
d'entendre  de  la  sorte  un  mot  fameux,  et  de  reconnaitre, 
en  se  condamnant  soi-meme,  qu'on  doit  surtout  la  verite 


He  sent  a  copy  of  his  works  to  each  of  my  children 
in  1842,  as  the  best  memorial  of  himself  that  he  could 


254  MEMOIR  OF   THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

give  them :   alas !   in  how  few  years   was  it  the  only 
memorial  left. 

I  find  among  the  papers  left  me  a  pretty  letter  from 
his  old  friend  Mr.  Grenville,  to  whom  my  father  had 
sent  what  he  "believed  to  "be  a  rare  and  valuable  edition 
of  Lucan,  which  we  had  found  among  his  books.  The 
following  is  an  extract  from  it : 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR, 

"Lucan  was  first  printed  in  1469;  but  although, 
under  these  circumstances,  Aldus  of  1515  may  not  be 
highly  estimated  in  bibliographical  reputation,  still  it 
comes  to  me  with  all  the  value  of  a  unique  copy ;  for 
I  know  nobody  else  who  would  have  so  disposed  of  a 
book  with  a  perfect  indifference  to  its  being  worth  one 
hundred  pounds  or  one  hundred  pence,  but  with  an 
evident  wish  that  it  might  turn  out  to  be  ranked  under 
the  first  of  these  two  classes.  Most  gladly  and  grate 
fully  therefore  shall  Lucan,  1515,  repose  upon  my 
shelves ;  with  the  unique  distinction  which  I  am  proud 
to  attribute  to.it  from  its  highly-valued  donor. 
"  Ever  most  truly  yours, 

"  THOMAS  GRENVILLE. 

"HAMILTON  PLACE,  J842." 

In  the  summer  of  1843,  we  had  a  visit  from  Mr. 
Moore,  a  visit  often  before  promised,  but  never  accom 
plished.  The  weather  and  the  place  were  lovely,  and 
seemed  to  inspire  the  charming  little  poet,  who  talked 
and  sang  in  his  peculiar  fashion,  like  any  nightingale  of 
the  Flower  Valley,  to  the  delight  of  us  all.  In  true  poet 
style,  when  he  departed,  he  left  various  articles  of  his 
wardrobe  scattered  about.  On  my  father  writing  to  in 
form  him  of  this,  he  sent  the  following  answer : 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  255 

"SLOPERTON,  1843. 

"MY  DEAR  SYDNEY, 

"  Your  lively  letter  (what  else  could  it  be  ?)  was  found 
by  me  here  on  my  return  from  Bowood ;  and  with  it  a 
shoal  of  other  letters,  which  it  has  taken  me  almost  ever 
since  to  answer.  I  began  my  answer  to  yours  in  rhyme, 
contrasting  the  recollections  I  had  brought  away  from 
you,  with  the  sort  of  treasures  you  had  supposed  me  to 
have  left  behind.  This  is  part  of  it : 

"  Rev.  Sir,  having  duly  received  by  the  post 
Your  list  of  the  articles  missing  and  lost 
By  a  certain  small  poet,  well  known  on  the  road, 
Who  visited  lately  your  flowery  abode ; 
We  have  balanced  what  Hume  calls  '  the  tottle  o'  the  ichokj 
Making  all  due  allowance  for  what  the  bard  stole  ; 
And  hoping  th'  inclosed  will  be  found  quite  correct, 
Have  the  honor,  Rev.  Sir,  to  be  yours  with  respect. 

"Left  behind  a  kid  glove,  once  the  half  of  a  pair, 
An  odd  stocking,  whose  fellow  is — Heaven  knows  where ; 
And  (to  match  these  odd  fellows)  a  couplet  sublime, 
Wanting  nought  to  complete  it  but  reason  and  rhyme. 

"  Such,  it  seems,  are  the  only  small  goods  you  can  find, 
That  this  runaway  bard  in  his  flight  left  behind ; 
But  in  settling  the  account,  just  remember,  I  pray, 
What  rich  recollections  the  rogue  took  away ; 
What  visions  forever  of  sunny  Combe  Florey, 
Its  cradle  of  hills,  where  it  slumbers  in  glory, 
Its  Sydney  himself,  and  the  countless  bright  things 
Which  his  tongue  or  his  pen,  from  the  deep  shining  springs 
Of  his  wisdom  and  wit,  ever  flovvingly  brings. 

a  I  have  not  time  to  recollect  any  more ;  besides  I 
was  getting  rather  out  of  my  depth  in  those  deep  shin 
ing  springs,  though  not  out  of  yours.  Kindest  regards 
to  the  ladies,  not  forgetting  the  pretty  Hebe*  of  the 
breakfast-table  the  day  I  came  away. 

"Yours  ever  most  truly, 

"  THOMAS  MOORE." 

*  Sir  Henry  Holland's  youngest  daughter. 


256  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"BowooD,  August,  Tuesday,  22d,  1843. 

"Mr  DEAR  SYDNEY, 

"  You  said,  in  your  acknowledgment  of  my  late  versi- 
cles,  that  you  had  never  been  be-rhymed  before.  This 
startled  me  into  the  recollection  that  I  had  myself  once 
before  made  free  with  you  in  that  way ;  but  where  the 
evidence  was  of  my  presumption,  I  could  not  remember. 
The  verses  however,  written  some  three  or  four  years 
ago,  have  just  turned  up,  and  here  they  are  for  you.  I 
forgot,  by-the-by,  to  tell  you  that,  a  day  or  two  after 
my  return  from  Combe  Florey  (I  like  to  write  that  name), 
I  was  persuaded  to  get  into  a  gig  with  Lady  Kerry,  and 
let  her  drive  me  some  miles.  Next  day  I  found  out 
that,  but  a  day  or  two  before,  it  had  run  away  with  her ! 
— no  bad  taste,  certainly,  in  the  horse ;  but  it  shows 
what  one  gets  by  consorting  with  young  countesses  and 
frisky  ecclesiastics.* 

"Yours  ever,  THOMAS  MOORE. 

******* 

"And  still  let  us  laugh,  preach  the  world  as  it  may, 

Where  the  cream  of  the  joke  is,  the  swarm  will  soon  follow ; 
Heroics  are  very  fine  things  in  their  way, 

But  the  laugh,  at  the  long-run,  will  carry  it  hollow. 

"  Yes,  Jocus !  gay  god,  whom  the  Gentiles  supplied, 

And  whose  worship  not  even  among  Christians  declines ; 
In  our  senates  thou'st  languished,  since  Sheridan  died, 
But  Sydney  still  keeps  thee  alive  in  our  shrines. 

"  Rare  Sydney !  thrice  honor'd  the  stall  where  he  sits, 

And  be  his  every  honor  he  deigneth  to  climb  at ! 
Had  England  a  hierarchy  form'd  all  of  wits, 

Whom,  but  Sydney,  would  England  proclaim  as  its  primate  ? 

"  And  long  may  he  flourish,  frank,  merry,  and  brave, 

A  Horace  to  feast  with,  a  Pascalf  to  read ! 
While  he  laughs,  all  is  safe ;  but,  when  Sydney  grows  grave, 
We  shall  then  think  the  Church  is  in  danger  indeed." 

*  Mr.  Smith  had  driven  Mr.  Moore  with  a  somewhat  frisky  horse. 
Mr.  Moore  got  out  of  the  gig,  and  walked  home. 

t  "  Some  parts  of  the  '  Provinciales'  may  be  said  to  be  of  the  highest 
order  ofjeuz  d'csprit" — Note  by  Mr.  Moore. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  257 

About  this  time  the  very  valuable  living  of  Edmon 
ton  fell  vacant,  by  the  death  of  my  father's  fellow-canon, 
Mr.  Tate  ;  and  by  the  rules  of  the  Chapter  of  St.  Paul's, 
it  lay  with  my  father  either  to  take  it  himself  or  present 
it  to  a  relation  or  friend.  Remembering  the  honest  in 
trepidity  of  his  old  colleague,  who,  in  spite  of  poverty 
and  many  children,  had  many  years  before  joined  him 
in  a  minority  of  two  against  the  clergy  of  Yorkshire, 
under  a  Tory  administration,  in  favor  of  Catholic  Eman 
cipation  ;  and  grieving  at  the  poverty  his  family  would 
be  reduced  to  by  his  death,  he  determined  to  bestow 
the  living  on  his  eldest  son,  who  had  acted  as  his  fa 
ther's  curate,  if  he  found  on  inquiry  that  he  was  fitted 
for  it  by  his  character.  He  has  given  a  most  touching 
account  of  his  interview  with  the  unhappy  widow  and 
her  family  on  this  occasion,  in  a  letter  to  my  mother, 
from  which  I  shall  give  some  extracts. 

"  GREEN  STREET,  October  23. 

"DEAREST  KATE, 

"I  meant  to  have  gone  to  Munden  to-day,  but  am 
not  quite  stout,  so  have  postponed  my  journey  there 
till  next  Saturday,  the  28th.  I  went  over  yesterday 
to  the  Tates  at  Edmonton.  The  family  consists  of  three 
delicate  daughters,  an  aunt,  the  old  lady,  and  her  son, 
then  curate  of  Edmonton ;  the  old  lady  was  in  bed. 
I  found  there  a  physician,  an  old  friend  of  Tate's,  at 
tending  them  from  friendship,  who  had  come  from  Lon 
don  for  that  purpose.  They  were  in  daily  expectation 
of  being  turned  out  from  house  and  curacy.  .  .  I  began 
by  inquiring  the  character  of  their  servant ;  then  turned 
the  conversation  upon  their  affairs,  and  expressed  a  hope 
the  Chapter  might  ultimately  do  something  for  them. 
I  then  said,  '  It  is  my  duty  to  state  to  you  (they  were 
all  assembled)  that  I  have  given  away  the  living  of 


258'  MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

Edmonton ;  and  have  written  to  our  Chapter  clerk  this 
morning,  to  mention  the  person  to  whom  I  have  given 
it ;  and  I  must  also  tell  you,  that  I  am  sure  he  will  ap 
point  his  curate.  (A  general  silence  and  dejection.)  It 
is  a  very  odd  coincidence,'  I  added,  '  that  the  gentleman 
I  have  selected  is  a  namesake  of  this  family ;  his  name 
is  Tate.  Have  you  any  relations  of  that  name?'  'No, 
we  have  not.'  'And,  by  a  more  singular  coincidence, 
his  name  is  Thomas  Tate;  in  short,'  I  added,  'there  is 
no  use  in  mincing  the  matter,  you  are  vicar  of  Edmon 
ton.'  They  all  burst  into  tears.  It  flung  me  also  into 
a  great  agitation  of  tears,  and  I  wept  and  groaned  for  a 
long  time.  Then  I  rose,  and  said  I  thought  it  was  very 
likely  to  end  in  their  keeping  a  buggy,  at  which  we 
all  laughed  as  violently. 

"  The  poor  old  lady,  who  was  sleeping  in  a  garret 
because  she  could  not  bear  to  enter  into  the  room  lately 
inhabited  by  her  husband,  sent  for  me  and  kissed  me, 
sobbing  with  a  thousand  emotions.  The  charitable 
physician  wept  too.  ...  I  never  passed  so  remarkable 
a  morning,  nor  was  more  deeply  impressed  with  the  suf 
ferings  of  human  life,  and  never  felt  more  thoroughly  the 
happiness  of  doing  good. 

"  God  bless  you! 

"SYDNEY  SMITH." 

On  this  act  becoming  known,  my  father  received  an 
address  from  the  principal  parishioners  of  Edmonton, 
stating  that  they  had  intended  to  address  the  Dean  and 
Chapter,  respectfully  soliciting  their  patronage  in  favor 
of  the  son  of  their  late  vicar,  and  adding:  "But  what 
shall  we  say,  Reverend  Sir,  of  that  munificent  act  of 
liberality  on  your  part,  by  which  the  necessity  of  such 
a  memorial  is  superseded?  Though  however  that  ne 
cessity  is  superseded,  we  feel,  Reverend  Sir,  bound  in 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  259 

gratitude  to  present  to  you  personally  our  united  thanks, 
for  the  great  benefit  you  have  bestowed  on  our  parish, 
and  the  high  gratification  you  have  afforded  us."  To 
which  my  father  replied : 

"GENTLEMEN, 

"I  am  very  much  pleased  by  the  address  you  have 
done  me  the  honor  to  send  me.  ...  In  the  choice  of  a 
clergyman  for  the  parish  of  Edmonton,  I  was  actuated 
by  many  considerations.  I  had  to  consult  the  character 
and  dignity  of  the  Chapter,  which  would  have  been  com 
promised  by  the  nomination  of  a  person  merely  because 
he  was  my  friend  and  relation.  I  was  to  find  a  serious 
and  diligent  man,  in  the  prime  of  life,  able  and  eager  to 
fulfill  the  burdensome  duties  of  so  large  a  parish  ;  and  I 
was  to  seek  in  him  those  characters  of  gentleness  and 
peace  which  are  of  such  infinite  importance  to  the  char 
acter  of  the  Church,  and  the  happiness  of  those  who  live 
under  the  beautiful  influence  of  these  qualities.  Lastly, 
I  had  to  show  nay  strong  respect  for  the  memory  of  one 
of  the  kindest  and  best  men  that  ever  lived ;  and  to  lift 
up,  if  I  could,  from  poverty  and  despair,  his  widow  and 
his  children. 

"  The  address  I  have  the  honor  to  receive  from  you 
to-day  convinces  me  that  I  have  succeeded  in  combining 
these  objects  ;  and  makes  me  really  happy  in  thinking 
that  my  conduct  has  obtained  the  approbation  of  so 
many  honorable  men,  so  well  acquainted  with  the  cir 
cumstances  of  the  case. 

"  I  am,  Gentlemen,  with  great  respect, 

"Your  obedient  humble  servant, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

I  must  add  a  touching  little  note  from  his  old  friend 
Mrs.  Marcet,  to  my  mother,  on  this  occasion : 


260  MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  What  a  happy  woman  you  must  be,  my  dear  Mrs. 
Smith,  to  have  such  a  husband!  All  the  world  know 
his  talents,  but  it  is  not  many  who  know  that  heart,  so 
overflowing  with  generous  and  magnanimous  feelings, 
with  tender  mercies,  and  Christian  charities.  God 
bless  him !  .  .  .  I  will  write  it,  though  it  makes  my 
hand  ache  ;*  it  fills  my  heart  with  joy,  and  my  eyes 
with  tears. 

"  Ever  affectionately  yours, 

"J.  MARCET." 

The  following  letter  was  very  kindly  sent  to  me  by 
the  Bishop  of  London,  from  which  I  give  extracts  : 

"MY   DEAR   LORD, 

"I  am  very  glad  you  approve  of  my  choice.  Every 
one  of  the  persons  who  have  pews  in  his  church  have 
concurred  in  the  same  sentiment,  as  I  learn  from  a  me 
morial  sent  to  me  to  that  effect.  I  never  saw  a  greater 
scene  of  distress  than  when  I  went  down  to  them — the 
poor  mother  ill  in  bed  of  a  fever,  three  delicate  sisters, 
a  poor  and  aged  aunt,  and  the  curate — all  expecting  to 
be  turned  out  of  house  and  curacy,  with  £100  per  annum 
between  them  all.  The  transition  from  despair  to  joy 
was  awful;  I  shall  never  forget  it.  ...  Have  mercy, 
my  dear  Lord,  and  take  £100  ;f  it  leaves  only  £700 
per  annum  to  the  Vicar  of  Edmonton  and  his  brothers ; 

this  will  make  W Hill  equal  to  Southgate,  where 

the  curacy  is  made  up  £200  per  annum. 

"Yours,  my  dear  Lord,  very  sincerely, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

It  is  beautifully  said  somewhere — "Happiness  is  what 

*  Mrs.  M.  had  sprained  her  wrist. 

t  The  Bishop  of  London  had  wished  to  divide  the  living. 


MEMOIU  OF  THE   KEY.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  201 

all  men  seek ;  all  men  have  the  jewel  in  their  casket, 
but  how  few  find  the  key  to  open  it!"  The  following 
paragraph,  which,  I  find  my  mother  says,  "  was  cut  out 
of  our  papers  and  preserved  by  Sydney,"  shows  at  least 
that  he  had  not  sought  for  the  key  quite  in  vain. 

"  Receipt  for  making  every  Day  Happy. 
"  When  you  rise  in  the  morning,  form  a  resolution  to 
make  the  day  a  happy  one  to  a  fellow-creature.  It  is 
easily  done ;  a  left-off  garment  to  the  man  who  needs 
it,  a  kind  word  to  the  sorrowful,  an  encouraging  expres 
sion  to  the  striving ;  trifles  in  themselves  light  as  air 
will  do  it,  at  least  for  the  twenty-four  hours ;  and,  if 
you  are  young,  depend  upon  it  it  will  tell  when  you  are 
old ;  and,  if  you  are  old,  rest  assured  it  will  send  you 
gently  and  happily  down  the  stream  of  human  time  to 
eternity.  By  the  most  simple  arithmetical  sum,  look 
at  the  result:  you  send  one  person,  only  one,  happily 
through  the  day ;  that  is  three  hundred  and  sixty-five 
in  the  course  of  the  year ;  and  supposing  you  live  forty 
years  only  after  you  commence  that  course  of  medicine, 
you  have  made  14,600  human  beings  happy,  at  all 
events  for  a  time.  Now,  worthy  reader,  is  this  not 
simple?  It  is  too  short  for  a  sermon,  too  homely  for 
ethics,  and  too  easily  accomplished  for  you  to  say,  '  I 
would  if  I  could.'  " 

I  know  that  my  mother  thought  her  husband's  life 
the  best  comment  on  these  precepts.  I  sec  among  his 
scattered  notes  on  this  subject,  "  The  haunts  of  Happi 
ness  are  varied,  and  rather  unaccountable;  but  I  have 
more  often  seen  her  among  little  children,  home  fire 
sides,  and  country  houses,  than  any  where  else;  at 
least  I  think  so." 


262  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

On  his  return  to  Combe  Florey,  in  July,  he  spent 
a  few  days  at  Nuneham,  on  a  visit  to  his  former  dio 
cesan,  the  Archbishop  of  York.  He  met  there  a  large 
and  agreeable  party;  and  a  discussion  arising,  among 
other  subjects,  on  hardness  of  character,  my  father,  at 
the  request  of  Miss  G.  Harcourt,  wrote  the  following 
definition  of  it. 

"  Definition  of  Hardness  of  Character. 

"  Hardness  is  a  want  of  minute  attention  to  the  feel 
ings  of  others.  It  does  not  proceed  from  malignity  or 
a  carelessness  of  inflicting  pain,  but  from  a  want  of 
delicate  perception  of  those  little  things  by  which  pleas 
ure  is  conferred  or  pain  excited. 

"A  hard  person  thinks  he  has  done  enough  if  he 
does  not  speak  ill  of  your  relations,  your  children,  or 
your  country ;  and  then,  with  the  greatest  good-humor 
and  volubility,  and  with  a  total  inattention  to  your 
individual  state  and  position,  gallops  over  a  thousand 
fine  feelings,  and  leaves  in  every  step  the  mark  of  his 
hoofs  upon  your  heart.  Analyze  the  conversation  of  a 
well-bred  man  who  is  clear  of  the  besetting  sin  of  hard 
ness  ;  it  is  a  perpetual  homage  of  polite  good-nature. 
He  remembers  that  you  are  connected  with  the  Church, 
and  he  avoids  (whatever  his  opinions  may  be)  the  most 
distant  reflections  on  the  Establishment.  He  knows 
that  you  are  admired,  and  he  admires  you  as  far  as  is 
compatible  with  good-breeding.  He  sees  that,  though 
young,  you  are  at  the  head  of  a  great  establishment, 
and  he  infuses  into  his  manner  and  conversation  that 
respect  which  is  so  pleasing  to  all  who  exercise  author 
ity.  He  leaves  you  in  perfect  good-humor  with  your 
self,  because  you  perceive  how  much  and  how  success 
fully  you  have  been  studied. 

"  In  the  mean  time  the  gentleman  on  the  other  side 


MEMOIR   OF  THE    REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  263 

of  you  (a  highly  moral  and  respectable  man)  has  been 
crushing  little  sensibilities,  and  violating  little  proprie 
ties,  and  overlooking  little  discriminations ;  and,  with 
out  violating  any  thing  which  can  be  called  a  rule,  or 
committing  what  can  be  denominated  a  fault,  has  dis 
pleased  and  dispirited  you,  from  wanting  that  fine  vision 
which  sees  little  things,  and  that  delicate  touch  which 
handles  them,  and  that  fine  sympathy  which  this  supe 
rior  moral  organization  always  bestows. 

"  So  great  an  evil  in  society  is  hardness,  and  that 
want  of  perception  of  the  minute  circumstances  which 
occasion  pleasure  or  pain  ! " 

Toward  the  end  of  this  year  (1843)  my  father  sent  a 
*4  petition  to  the  American  Congress,  for  payment  of  the 
\  debt  due  to  England  by  the  repudiating  States. 

It  was  said  of  Eegnault  St.  Jean  d'Angely,  Presi 
dent  of  the  French  Institute,  "  qu'il  avait  passe  la  vie 
en  venant  toujours  au  secours  du  plus  fort"  The 
reverse  might  justly  be  said  of  my  father :  he  passed 
his  life  in  minorities,  and  in  the  cause  of  the  oppressed. 
He  says,  in  speaking  of  his  motives  for  "undertaking  the 
one  in  question:  "I  am  no  enemy  to  America;  I  loved 
and  admired  honest  America  when  she  respected  the 
laws  of  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence,  and  I  thought 
the  United  States  the  most  magnificent  picture  of  hu 
man  happiness.  I  meddle  now  in  these  matters  because 
I  hate  fraud ;  because  I  pity  the  misery  it  has  occa 
sioned  ;  because  I  mourn  over  the  hatred  it  has  excited 
against  free  institutions." 

This  petition,  and  the  letters  which  followed  it,  pro- 

J   duced    a    most    extraordinary    sensation,    and    brought 

!    upon    him    much    abuse    from    the    American    press ; 

though  we  had  reason  to  believe,  from  many  sources, 


264  MEMOIR  OF   THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH, 

that  they  spoke  the  feelings  of  every  honorable  man 
in  America. 

"And  all  this  storm,"  says  the  editor  of  the  "Morn 
ing  Chronicle"  of  the  time,  "has  been  raised  by  a  few 
words  from  a  private  English  gentleman !  Why  is  it 
that  his  words  have  had  such  a  talismanic  effect?  It 
is  true,  they  were  words  of  choice  and  singular  excel 
lence  ;  but  no  mastery  of  language  or  weight  of  literary 
reputation  could  so  have  moved  America,  if  they  did 
not  happen  to  be  employed  in  the  utterance  of  home 
truths,  which  are,  or  ought  to  be,  sharper. than  a  two- 
edged  sword.  We  repeat,  that  the  power  of  these  let 
ters  lies  mainly  in  the  deep  moral  feeling  that  pervades 
them  ;  and  one  proof  of  this  is,  the  warm  response  they 
have  called  forth  from  those  in  America,  in  whom  the 
moral  sense  is  strong  enough  to  make  them  speak  out." 

As  one  specimen  of  this,  I  shall  insert  a  speech  or 
letter  of  Mr.  Ticknor's,  extracted  from  the  "Boston 
Semi-weekly  Advertiser,"  and  sent  to  my  father  by 
Mr.  Everett. 

"  The  short  and  pungent  petition  to  Congress  of  the 
Eev.  Sydney  Smith,  in  relation  to  his  claim  on  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  for  interest-money  due  to  him, 
has  already  excited  no  little  remark  among  us,  and  is 
likely  to  excite  yet  more.  This  is  probably  one  of  the 
eifects  its  author  intended  it  should  produce ;  perhaps 
it  is  one  of  the  effects  that  we  ourselves,  as  honest  men 
and  patriots,  ought  to  desire ;  for  the  subject  of  his 
petition  is  a  grave  one,  that  can  not  excite  too  much 
discussion  in  any  part  of  the  United  States.  But  we 
should  be  careful,  for  our  own  sakes,  to  assume  the 
right  tone  when  speaking  of  a  man  like  Mr.  Smith, 
who  only  asks  to  be  paid  that  to  which  he  is  as  justly 
entitled  as  any  one  of  us  is  entitled  to  any  thing  he 
possesses. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  205 

"  It  lias  therefore  appeared  to  many  persons  unseem 
ly  that  the  '  Boston  Courier'  should  speak  of  Mr.  Smith's 
petition  to  have  payment  made  to  him  of  the  interest, 
which  has  been  solemnly  promised  on  the  faith  and  hon 
or  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  merely  as  '  impudence, 
bombast,  and  impertinence.'  The  claims  of  a  creditor 
are  not  always  welcome  to  his  debtor,  and,  when  other 
means  have  failed,  they  are  not  always  set  forth  by  the 
injured  party  in  the  most  civil  and  gracious  words ;  writs 
and  executions,  for  instance,  are  not  drawn  up  in  terms 
chosen  for  the  sake  of  pleasing  '  ears  polite.'  Mr.  Smith 
would,  no  doubt,  have  much  preferred  to  use  the  good 
set  terms  of  these  instruments  of  established  authority ; 
and  nobody  would  then  have  fancied  he  was  doing  any 
thing  unreasonable,  since  he  would  be  doing  just  what 
every  body  else  does  who  can  not  in  other  ways  get  his 
rights.  But  the  great  and  rich  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
like  the  other  States  of  our  Union,  has  taken  some  pains 
to  place  herself  above  the  reach  of  such  vulgar  processes 
for  coercing  her  to  be  honest.  She  can  not  be  sued : 
her  creditor,  therefore,  is  compelled  to  use  his  own  words, 
instead  of  the  more  stringent  words  of  the  law.  No 
doubt  Mr.  Sydney  Smith,  when  doing  this,  does  not 
present  himself  with  a  very  cringing  air :  he  uses  strong 
phrases,  stronger  than  we  like  to  hear,  stronger  than  is 
respectful ;  but  the  real  difficulty  in  the  case  is,  that 
the  strongest  words  he  uses  are  true  words;  for  just 
so  long  as  the  Pennsylvanians  refuse  to  lay  a  tax  of 
one  cent  on  every  hundred  dollars  of  their  wealth  to 
pay  their  honest  debts,  just  so  long  may  they  be 
called  'men  who  prefer  any  load  of  infamy,  however 
great,  to  any  pressure  of  taxation,  however  light;'  and 
this  is  the  hardest  and  sharpest  phrase  in  Mr.  Smith's 
petition.  To  be  sure,  it  would  not  be  easy,  on  the 
same  subject,  to  say  any  thing  more  cutting  or  more 
YOL,  T.— M 


266  MEMO1K   OF   THE    REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

terse ;  but,  after  all,  the  bitterness  of  the  words  lies  in 
their  truth. 

"The  'New  York  Evening  Post'  is  more  severe  on 
Mr.  Smith  than  the  'Boston  Courier.'  His  petition  is 
there  treated  as  the  '  ravings  of  one  who  had  been  dis 
appointed  in  reaping  that  profit  from  his  speculations 
which  he  expected  and  desired;'  and,  because  he  has 
told  us  that  we  are  '  unstable  in  the  very  foundations  of 
social  life,'  the  writer  in  the  'Post'  inquires,  whether 
'  the  Bible  used  by  the  reverend  gentleman  teaches  him 
that  dollars  and  cents  are  the  very  foundation  of  social 
life  ?'  Now,  it  is  disagreeable  to  witness  such  injustice 
coupled  with  such  violence  of  language ;  the  thing  is 
wrong  in  itself,  and  it  does  us  much  harm.  The  Rev. 
Sydney  Smith  is  no  more  a  speculator  than  every  man 
is  who  lends  money  to  his  neighbor  at  the  regular  rate 
of  interest ;  nor  does  he  rave  any  more  than  every  man 
raves,  who  insists,  in  round  terms,  that  he  will  be  paid 
what  is  plainly  and  lawfully  due  to  him.  Then,  too,  as 
to  the  'foundations  of  social  life,'  the  New  York  assail 
ant  of  Mr.  Smith  really  does  not  seem  to  suspect  that 
honesty  and  good  faith  are  among  them,  and  that  all  the 
English  clergyman  asks  of  Pennsylvania  is  to  be  hon 
est,  in  the  lowest  and  commonest  sense  of  that  reproach 
ful  word,  which  we  can  no  longer,  as  one  would  think 
from  the  tone  of  this  writer  in  the  '  Post,'  bear  to  have 
uttered  in  our  presence. 

"But  let  us  now  look  at  the  matter  just  as  it  really 
stands.  The  Rev.  Sydney  Smith,  as  any  body  may 
learn  who  will  inquire,  is  a  man  known  throughout 
Europe  for  his  wit,  logic,  and  the  general  vigor  of  his 
mind.  He  was,  above  forty  years  ago,  one  of  the  found 
ers  and  main  supporters  of  the  Edinburgh  Review ;  and 
he  is  now  one  of  the  most  popular  and  powerful  writers 
of  his  time,  read  alike  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   KEY.   Sl'DXEY   SMITH.  267 

He  is  iin  old  Whig;  and  for  the  sin  of  maintaining  man 
fully,  against  all  his  worldly  interests,  the  cause  of  free 
institutions,  the  cause  of  Irish  emancipation,  and  the 
cause  of  Parliamentary  reform,  he  was  kept  low  in  the 
Church,  as  long  as  the  Tories  had  power ;  and  support 
ed  himself  and  his  family,  in  no  small  degree,  by  his 
pen.  He  was,  in  fact,  for  many  years  a  very  poor  par 
son,  in  a  very  poor  parish  in  Yorkshire,  where  he  was 
much  loved  "by  his  parishioners  for  his  active  goodness ; 
taking  pains,  among  other  things,  to  study  medicine,  in 
order  to  be  able  to  practice  it  gratuitously  among  them, 
as  there  was  no  physician  in  their  neighborhood,  and 
they  could  not  afford  to  send  abroad  for  one.  When 
he  was  about  sixty  years  old,  the  Whigs  came  into 
office,  and  gave  him  a  good  living.  From  this,  it  seems, 
he  made  in  his  old  age  some  savings :  and,  having  con 
fidence  in  free  institutions  and  American  honesty,  he  in 
vested  a  part,  or  the  whole,  of  these  savings  in  Penn 
sylvania  stocks.  But  his  interest  there  is  not  paid,  and 
his  capital  is  shrunk  to  a  merely  nominal  value.  He 
of  course  complains.  He  tells  us  even  that  we  are  not 
honest.  We  answer,  you  'rave,'  you  are  'impertinent,' 
you  are  '  impudent,'  you  are  '  a  reverend  slanderer.' 
But  what,  in  the  mean  time,  do  honorable  men  every 
where  say  better  about  us  ?  and  how  comfortably  does 
an  American,  always  before  so  proud  to  call  himself 
such,  feel,  who  is  now  traveling  in  any  part  of  the  world 
out  of  his  own  country !  Nay,  how  do  we  ourselves 
feel  about  our  conduct  and  character  in  our  own  secret 
hearts  at  home  ? 

"  One  word  more.  The  Rev.  Sydney' Smith  is,  after 
all,  only  the  representative  of  a  very  large  class  of  men, 
chiefly  in  England,  but  also  to  be  found  scattered  more 
or  less  over  the  best  portions  of  the  continent  of  Europe, 
who  now  think  and  talk  of  the  indebted  States  of  Amer- 


268  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH, 

ica  exactly  as  he  does.  They  are  men  of  moderate  prop 
erty  and  much  intelligence.  They  have  had  greater  con 
fidence  in  free  institutions  than  the  rich  and  the  power 
ful  around  them.  They  have  looked  upon  us  Americans 
especially  with  kindness,  respect,  and  cheerful  trust ; 
when  others,  of  more  worldly  consideration  than  them 
selves,  have  looked  upon  us  with  aversion  and  contempt. 
They  have  been,  in  short,  our  sincere  friends ;  and  part 
ly  because  they  were  our  friends,  and  believed  in  us 
and  our  forms  of  government,  they  have  lent  us  their 
money  to  the  amount  of  above  a  hundred  millions  of 
dollars ;  perhaps  more  nearly  two  hundred.  And  how 
have  we  requited  their  confidence  ?  Mr.  Smith's  pe 
tition  may  inform  us.  We  may  learn  from  it,  too,  that 
we  must  do  something  to  regain  for  ourselves  the  de 
cent  consideration  among  mankind  which  we  have  for 
feited — and  forfeited,  too,  merely  to  save  ourselves  from 
paying  a  certain  number  of  'dollars  and  cents,'  as  the 
writer  in  the  'Evening  Post'  would  say,  which  we  are 
quite  aware  we  honestly  owe. 

"  The  people  of  Massachusetts  and  New  England, 
and  indeed  the  people  of  the  majority  of  these  States, 
are  not  called  upon  to  take  to  themselves  any  more  of 
the  censures  of  Mr.  Smith  than  a  man  is  obliged  to  take 
of  the  censures  that  fall  on  a  disgraced  community  with 
which  he  is  intimately  associated.  We  may  therefore 
well  be  thankful,  and  in  some  degree  proud,  that  these 
States  have  committed  no  injustice  toward  their  credit 
ors  ;  but  while  we  are  thankful  for  this,  we  must  also 
be  careful  not  to  countenance  the  dishonest  States  in 
their  dishonesty,  nor  to  seem  eager  to  rebuke  a  foreign 
creditor  who  comes  among  us  boldly  demanding  his 
dues." 

But  what  gratified  my  father  most  was  a  private  let- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  2G9 

ter  lie  received,  shortly  after  his  American  letters  were 
written,  from  his  friend  Mr.  Wainwright,  giving  an  ac 
count  of  the  arrival  of  a  steamer  at  New  York,  with  a 
Sydney  Smith  on  board.  Mr.  Wainwright's  letter  best 
states  what  happened. 


YORK,  July  15fA,  1844. 
4  'REV.  AND  DEAR  SlR, 

"  Upon  the  recent  arrival  of  the  '  Great  Western,'  in 
the  list  of  passengers  published,  was  Sydney  Smith  ! 
The  next  morning  the  newspapers  trumpeted  through 
out  the  land  that  'the  founder  of  the  Edinburgh  Re 
view,'  'the  distinguished  Prebendary  of  St.  Paul's,' 
'  the  man  of  a  thousand  of  the  happiest  sayings  of  the 
age,'  and,  above  all,  'the  scourge  of  repudiating  Penn 
sylvania,'  had  actually  arrived  in  this  remote  hemi 
sphere  !  "What  was  to  be  done  ?  Should  he  be  tarred 
and  feathered,  or  lynched  ?  Quite  the  contrary  !  He 
was  to  }*&  feted,  rejoiced  in,  and  even  Pennsylvania  was 
to  meet  him  with  cordial  salutations.  A  hundred  din 
ners  were  arranged  at  the  moment,  and  the  guests  se 
lected.  When,  lo  !  he  who  had  caused  this  great  ex 
citement  turned  out  to  be  some  humble  New  York 
trader,  of  whom  nobody  had  ever  heard  before  !  Now 
he  might  have  signed  himself  S.  Smith,  and  all  would 
have  been  well  ;  it  would  have  passed  for  Samuel, 
Simeon,  or  Shearjashub.  But  in  an  evil  hour  he  had 
the  vanity  or  presumption  to  write  in  full,  and  hence 
have  come  upon  us  disappointments  without  end.  As 
a  proper  reparation,  we  must  insist  upon  his  applying 
to  the  Legislature  to  have  an  agnomen  with  which  he 
has  no  business  changed. 

"Among  the  disappointed  were  numbers  of  my  con 
gregation,  who,  seeing  a  very  dignified  clerical-looking 
stranger  in  my  pew  at  St.  John's,  the  day  after  the 


270  MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

'Western'  arrived,  jumped  at  the  conclusion,  and  stared 
a  worthy  ecclesiastic  almost  out  of  countenance  as  he 
went  out  of  church ;  and  his  only  consolation  is,  that 
he  came  nearer  to  passing  for  a  wit  than  he  ever  did 
before,  or  ever  will  again.  But  the  most  disappointed 
person  was  your  old  schoolmate,  and  my  excellent 
friend,  Moore ;  who,  being  confined  to  the  house,  and 
hearing  the  Sunday  report  from  his  family,  was  mo 
mentarily  expecting,  for  three  hours  after  service,  to 
take  his  Winchester  friend  by  the  hand. 

"Now,  would  it  be  possible  for  you  to  give  us  the 
only  solace  for  these  disappointments  ?  The  ships  and 
steamers  are  admirable,  the  passage  in  summer  and  au 
tumn  by  no  means  arduous,  the  greeting  awaiting  you 
the  heartiest  possible,  and  the  country  and  people — you 
will  judge  of  them  when  you  come.  In  New  York  you 
will  find  a  home  prepared  in  my  house ;  and  to  show 
you  that  you  will  not  want  others  in  other  places,  I 
send  you  a  letter  which  I  received  from  the  Bishop  of 
New  Jersey,  from  his  beautiful  place,  Riverside. 
"Most  truly  your  obedient  friend  and  servant, 

"  J.  M.  WAIN  WEIGHT.'' 

From  the  Bishop  of  .New  Jersey. 

"  RIVERSIDE,  July  Sth,  1844. 

"  MY  DEAR  WAIN  WRIGHT, 

"  I  notice  the  arrival  of  the  Rev.  Sydney  Smith  by 
the  '  Great  Western.'  I  desire  to  offer  him  the  hospi 
tality  of  Riverside.  You  have  been  promising  me  a 
visit ;  I  propose  to  you  that  you  invite  him  to  come  on 
with  you  on  Monday  or  Tuesday  of  next  week,  as  may 
be  most  agreeable  to  you.  I  name  that  time,  as  we 
propose  a  visit  to  Niagara,  Toronto,  etc.,  on  the  follow 
ing  week.  Let  me  hear  from  you  as  soon  as  convenient. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  KEY.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  271 

I  observe  that  your  daughter  has  sailed  for  Europe  ;  we 
follow  her  with  our  best  wishes. 

"With  best  love  to  all  yours,  ever  your  affectionate 
brother,  G."  W.  Do  AXE." 

Though  my  father  made  his  own  claims  the  plea  for 
undertaking  this  cause,  he  was  now  become,  through 
private  sources,  a  rich  man,  and  what  he  lost  was  a 
mere  trifle.  But  during  the  excitement  his  letters 
caused,  it  was  curious  that,  while  abuse  flowed  in  from 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  by  every  packet,  which 
he  used  to  read  to  us  at  breakfast  with  great  good-hu 
mor,  on  this  side  he  was  regarded  as  the  lion's  mouth 
at  Venice.  He  writes  on  one  occasion,  evidently  much 
amused  : 


VAN  DE  WEYER, 
"  Many  thanks  ;  they  seem  puzzled  with  the  whole 
thing,  and  can  not  make  me  out.     What  a  mistake,  to 
depreciate  my  beauty  and  my  orthodoxy  ! 
"  Ever  yours, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

Letter  after  letter  poured  in  by  every  post  ;  of  grati 
tude,  encouragement,  thanks,  tales  of  losses  and  miser 
ies  occasioned  by  this  want  of  faith  in  the  repudiating 
States,  as  if  these  aggrieved  persons  looked  upon  him  as 
the  champion  of  public  faith  throughout  Christendom. 

I  ought,  in  justice,  to  mention,  that  together  with  the 
abuse,  there  came  frequently  from  America  little  offer 
ings,  such  as  apples,  cheese,  etc.,  from  unknown  indi 
viduals  ;  unwilling,  as  they  said,  to  share  the  public 
shame,  and  offering  their  quota  toward  the  payment  of 
the  Pennsylvania!!  debt. 


272  MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

I  have,  in  the  first  part  of  this  Memoir,  given  some 
few  extracts,  to  show  the  deep  impression  he  then  pro 
duced  in  the  pulpit ;  I  shall  now  give  one,  written  on 
hearing  him  in  his  old  age,  by  a  medical  man,  of  emi 
nence  in  his  profession. 

"MY  DEAR  MR.  SMITH, 

14 Not  being  'a  brown  man  of  Pennsylvania,'  I  pay 
my  just  debts ;  and  I  offer  to  you  the  tribute  of  my 
sincere  thanks  for  one  of  the  most  impressive  and  elo 
quent  discourses,  delivered  yesterday  at  St.  Paul's,  that 
it  has  ever  fallen  to  my  lot  to  hear.  I  wish  I  could  read 
it.  There  is  a  magic  in  your  name,  which,  if  it  was 
published,  would  incite  every  body  to  read  it,  and  no 
one  is  too  good  or  too  bad  not  to  derive  profit  from  such 
an  appeal  to  his  reason  and  his  conscience.  To  pass  by 
your  merits  of  style  and  elocution — peculiar,  and  be 
yond  my  praise — the  simple,  straightforward  method  of 
treating  your  subject,  delighted  me.  It  is  a  rare  and 
refreshing  gratification  to  listen,  in  these  times  of  dis 
cord  and  strife  on  matters  of  faith,  to  a  preacher  whose 
improvement  of  his  text  is  not  encumbered  by  refer 
ences  to  historical  or  traditional  details ;  and  whose 
style,  clear,  logical,  and  fervid,  carries  with  him  the 
reason  as  well  as  the  feeling  of  his  audience,  by  making 
their  intellects  a  party  to  their  conviction.  The  mys 
tical  phraseology  of  scriptural  preachers  (so  called)  al 
ways  appears  to  me  a  hinderance,  rather  than  a  help,  to 
serious  piety ;  and  I  should  hail  the  day  of  salvation 
for  the  Church,  not  of  this  nor  of  that  denomination, 
but  of  Christ,  when  such  sermons  were  heard  in  every 
cathedral  throughout  the  country,  as  that  which  you 
delivered  in  the  Metropolitan  last  Sunday;  which,  I 
will  undertake  to  assert,  no  hearer  did  not  feel  to  be  a 
spiritual  gain  and  encouragement." 


2HEMOIU  OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  273 

Another  short  sketch,  lately  sent  me  by  my  friend 
Mrs.  Austin,  I  shall  also  insert ;  giving  her  impressions 
on  hearing  my  father  for  the  first  time  preach  in  St. 
Paul's.  She  went  there  at  his  invitation,  in  conse 
quence  of  a  previous  conversation,  in  which  Mrs.  Aus- 
lin,  after  expressing  her  surprise  at  the  feeble  effect 
generally  produced  in  the  pulpit,  attributed  it  in  part 
to  the  vague  generalities  to  which  preachers  too  often 
confined  themselves.  Standing  there,  as  they  do,  with 
the  enormous  advantage  of  duty,  reason,  and  religion 
commanding  them  to  speak,  she  thought  that  they 
ought  to  make  each  moral  evil  which  afflicts  society  the 
object  of  special  and  energetic  attack. 

"For  example,"  she  said,  "why  do  you  not  preach 
a  sermon  against  the  love  of  war?"  My  father,  who 
most  warmly  coincided  with  these  feelings  against  war, 
as  may  be  seen  in  many  of  his  letters,  exclaimed,  "You 
are  right;  it  shall  be  done;  come  and  hear  me."  She 
went,  and  shall  tell  her  own  impressions. 

"  I  was  immediately  struck,  as  I  have  frequently 
been  since,  at  the  peculiar  character  and  aspect  of  the 
congregation  at  St.  Paul's ;  and  at  the  remarkable  sym 
pathy  that  appeared  to  exist  between  the  pastor  and 
his  flock.  The  choir  was  densely  filled,  yet  it  would 
have  been  difficult  to  detect  in  the  crowd  any  of  those 
diversities  of  station  which  are  usually  but  too  strongly 
marked  in  a  London  church.  It  appeared  one  homo 
geneous  body  of  sedate,  earnest,  respectable  citizens  and 
their  families — no  obtrusive  air  of  fashion,  no  painful 
look  of  poverty. 

"I  must  confess  that  I  went  to  hear  Mr.  Smith 
preach,  with  some  misgiving  as  to  the  effect  which  that 
well-known  face  and  voice,  ever  associated  with  wit 
and  mirth,  might  have  upon  me,  even  in  the  sacred 
place.  Never  were  misgivings  more  quickly  and  en- 

M* 


274  MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

tirely  dissipated.  The  moment  he  appeared  in  the  pul 
pit,  all  the  weight  of  his  duty,  all  the  authority  of  his 
office,  were  written  on  his  countenance ;  and  without  a 
particle  of  affectation  (of  which  he  was  incapable),  his 
whole  demeanor  bespoke  the  gravity  of  his  purpose.* 
Perhaps  indeed  it  was  the  more  striking  to  one  who 
had  till  then  only  seen  him  delighting  society  by  his 
gay  and  overflowing  wit.  As  soon  as  he  began  to 
speak,  the  whole  choir,  upon  which  I  looked  down,  ex 
hibited  one  mass  of  upraised,  attentive,  thoughtful  faces. 
It  seemed  as  if  his  deep,  earnest  tones  were  caught 
with  silent  eagerness ;  and  I  could  not  but  feel  that  the 
perfect  good  sense,  the  expansive  benevolence,  the  plain 
exposition  of  Christian  duty,  which  fell  from  his  lips, 
found  a  soil  well  fitted  to  receive  it.  His  hearers  looked 
like  men  who  came  prepared  'to  mark,'  and  able  'in 
wardly  to  digest,'  the  truths  and  the  counsels  he  so 
clearly  and  emphatically  placed  before  them.  I  remem 
ber  no  religious  service  which  ever  appeared  to  me  more 
solemn,  more  impressive,  or  more  calculated  to  bear  its 
appropriate  fruit — the  subjugation  of  fierce  and  restless 
passions,  and  the  culture  of  a  just,  humane,  and  Chris 
tian  temper." 

This  winter  Miss  Edgeworth  visited  London  for  the 
last  time.  During  her  visit  she  saw  much  of  my  fa 
ther  ;  and  her  talents,  as  well  as  her  love  and,  thorough 
knowledge  of  Ireland,  made  her  conversation  peculiarly 
agreeable  to  him.  I  wish  I  had  kept  some  notes  of 
these  conversations,  which  were  very  remarkable ;  but 

*  I  can  not  resist  adding  here  how  often  and  how  strongly  I  have 
felt  this  sudden  and  impressive  change  in  my  father.  On  entering  the 
pulpit,  the  calm  dignity  of  his  eye,  mien,  and  voice,  made  one  feel  that 
he  was  indeed,  and  felt  himself  to  be,  "  the  pastor  standing  between 
our  God  and  his  people,"  to  teach  his  laws,  to  declare  his  judgments, 
and  proclaim  his  mercies. 


MEMOIR  OF   THE    REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  275 

I  have  only  a  characteristic  and  amusing  letter  she 
wrote  to  me  soon  after  her  return  home,  from  which  the 
following  is  an  extract : 

"  I  have  not  the  absurd  presumption  to  think  your 
father  would  leave  London  or  Combe  Florey,  for  Ire 
land,  voluntarily  ;  but  I  wish  some  Irish  bishopric  were 
forced  upon  him,  and  that  his  own  sense  of  national 
charity  and  humanity  would  forbid  him  to  refuse. 
Then,  obliged  to  reside  among  us,  he  would  see,  in 
the  twinkling  of  an  eye  (such  an  eye  as  his),  all  our 
manifold  grievances  up  and  clown  the  country.  One 
word,  one  bo?i  mot  of  his,  would  do  more  for  us,  I 
guess,  than  Mr.  -  — 's  four  hundred  pages,  and  all  the 
like,  with  which  we  have  been  bored.  One  letter  from 
Sydney  Smith  on  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  with  his  name 
to  it,  and  after  having  been  there,  would  do  more  for  us 
than  his  letters  did  for  America  and  England — a  bold 
assertion,  you  will  say,  and  so  it  is ;  but  I  calculate 
that  Pat  is  a  far  better  subject  for  wit  than  Jonathan ; 
it  only  plays  round  Jonathan's  head,  but  it  goes  to 
Pat's  heart — to  the  very  bottom  of  his  heart,  where  he 
loves  it ;  and  he  don't  care  whether  it  is  for  or  against 
him,  so  that  it  is  real  wit  and  fun.  Now  Pat  would 
doat  upon  your  father,  and  kiss  the  rod  with  all  his 
soul,  he  would — the  lash  just  lifted — when  he'd  see  the 
laugh  on  the  face,  the  kind  smile,  that  would  tell  him  it 
was  all  for  his  good. 

"Your  father  would  lead  Pat  (for  he'd  never  drive 
him)  to  the  world's  end,  and  maybe  to  common  sense 
at  the  end — might  open  his  eyes  to  the  true  state  of 
things  and  persons,  and  cause  him  to  ax  himself  how  it 
comes  that,  if  he  be  so  distressed  by  the  Sassenach  land 
lords  that  he  can't  keep  soul  and  body  together,  nor  one 
farthing  for  the  wife  and  children,  after  paying  the  rint 


270  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

for  the  land,  still  and  nevertheless  he  can  pay  King 
Dan's  rint,  aisy — thousands  of  pounds,  not  for  lands  or 
potatoes,  but  just  for  castles  in  the  air.  Methinks  I 
hear  Pat  saying  the  words,  and  see  him  jump  to  the 
conclusion,  that  maybe  the  gintleman,  his  reverence, 
that  l  has  the  way  with  him,9*  might  be  the  man  after 
all  to  do  them  all  the  good  in  life,  and  asking  nothing 
at  all  from  them.  'Better,  sure,  than  Dan,  after  all! 
and  we  will  follow  him  through  thick  and  thin.  Why 
no  ?  What  though  he  is  his  reverence,  the  Church,  that 
is,  our  clear gy,  won't  object  to  him ;  for  he  was  never 
an  inimy  any  way,  but  always  for  paying  them  off  hand 
some,  and  fools  if  they  don't  take  it  now.  So  down  with 
King  Dan,  for  he's  no  good  !  and  up  with  Sydney — he's 
the  man,  king  of  glory  /' 

"  But,  visions  of  glory,  and  of  good  better  than  giory, 
spare  my  longing  sight !   else  I  shall  never  come  to  an 
end  of  this  note.     Note  indeed !   I  beg  your  pardon. 
"Yours  affectionately, 

"MARIA  EDGEWORTH." 

Miss  Edgeworth  says,  in  one  of  her  letters  to  her  sis 
ter,  after  one  of  the  evenings  spent  in  my  father's  socie 
ty — "  Delightful,  I  need  not  say ;  but  to  attempt  to 
Boswell  Sydney  Smith's  conversation  would  be  out- 
Boswelling  Boswell  indeed."  I  have  felt  the  truth  of 
this  observation  most  strongly  in  writing  these  Memoirs, 
and  should  have  flung  down  my  pen  in  despair  had  I  not 

*  This  expression,  " that  has  the  war/  with  him"  refers  to  a  conversa 
tion  my  father  had  with  Dr.  Doyle,  at  a  time  he  was  anxious  to  learn 
as  far  as  possible  what  effect  the  measures  he  was  proposing  would  have 
upon  the  Catholics.  He  proposed  that  Government  should  pay  the 
Catholic  priests.  "They  would  not  take  it,"  said  Dr.  Doyle.  "Do 
you  mean  to  say,  that  if  every  priest  in  Ireland  received  to-morroic  morning 
a  Government  letter  with  a  hundred  pounds •,  FIRST  QUARTER  of  their  year's 
income,  they  would  refuse  it?"  "Ah,  Mr.  Smith,"  said  Dr.  Doyle, 
"  you've,  such  a  way  of  putting  things  !" 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  277 

liad  brighter  and  better,  though  easier  things  to  tell,  than 
the  effusions  of  his  wit. 

I  shall  now  give  a  short  correspondence  between  my 
lather  arid  Sir  Robert  Peel,  as  it  does  equal  honor  to 
both: 

"MaySt/i,  1844. 

"  SIR, 

"  I  am  informed  there  will  be  a  vacancy  in  July  of  a 
clerkship  in  the  Record  Office,  in  that  department  of  it 
over  which  Mr.  Hardy,  I  believe,  presides.  There  is  a 
family  of  the  name  of  -  — ,  residing  in  -  — ,  who  have 
formerly  been  in  affluence,  but  have  fallen  with  the  fall 
of  the  West  Indies.  The  mother  and  daughter  are 
teaching  music.  The  son  is  an  excellent  lad,  under 
standing  and  speaking  French  and  German,  and  is  a 
humble  candidate  for  this  situation  of  Clerk  of  the 
Records,  worth  about  eighty  pounds  per  annum.  Mr. 
Hardy,  a  very  old  friend  of  the  family,  is  very  desirous 
of  getting  the  young  man  into  his  office.  A  better  family 
does  not  exist,  or  one  fighting  up  more  bravely  against 
adversity.  The  mother  has  been  repeatedly  to  me,  to 
beg  I  would  state  these  things  to  you.  I  stated  to  her 
that  I  had  so  little  the  honor  of  your  acquaintance,  that, 
though  I  had  met  you,  I  should  hardly  presume  to  bow 
to  you  in  the  street.  But  the  poor  lady  said  I  had  evi 
dence  to  give,  if  I  had  not  influence  to  use  ;  and  at  last 
I  consented  to  do  what  I  am  doing.  I  beg  therefore  to 
observe,  I  am  not  asking  any  thing  of  you  (no  man  has 
less  right  to  do  so) ;  I  am  merely  stating  facts  to  you 
respecting  an  office  of  which  you  have  the  disposal. 
I  have  no  other  acquaintance  with  the  family  than 
through  their  misfortunes,  borne  with  such  unshaken 
constancy. 

"  I  beg  you  will  not  give  yourself  the  trouble  to  an 
swer  this  letter.  If  mv  evidence  induces  von  to  make 


278  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

any  inquiries  about  the  young  lad,  that  will  be  the  best 
answer.  If  not,  I  shall  attribute  it  to  some  of  the  in 
numerable  obstacles  which  prevent  a  person  in  your  sit 
uation  from  giving  way  to  the  impulses  of  compassion 
and  good-nature. 

"I  have  the  honor  to  be,  etc., 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

"WHITEHALL,  May  Gth,  1844. 
"  SIR, 

"  I  do  not  recollect  that  I  ever  made  a  promise  of  an 
appointment  not  actually  vacant.  I  try  to  defer  as  long 
as  possible  the  evil  day  which  brings  to  me  the  invidi 
ous  duty  of  selecting  one  from  a  hundred  candidates, 
and  disappointment  to  ninety-nine  of  them. 

"But  I  am  so  sure  that,  when  the  particular  vacancy 
mentioned  in  your  letter  shall  occur,  there  will  be  no 
claim  which  it  will  give  me  greater  satisfaction  to  com 
ply  with,  than  one  brought  under  my  notice  by  you, 
from  such  kind  and  benevolent  motives  as  those  which 
alone  would  induce  you  to  write  to  me,  that  I  do  not 
hesitate  a  moment  in  making  an  exception  from  my 
general  rule,  and  in  at  once  giving  you  a  promise,  either 
that  Mr.  —  —  shall  have  the  appointment  you  name,  or 
one  equally  eligible  ;  and  not  at  a  more  distant  period, 
if  possible. 

"All  the  return  I  shall  ask  from  you  is  the  privilege 
of  renewing,  when  we  meet,  the  honor  of  your  acquaint 
ance. 

"  I  am,  Sir,  with  sincere  esteem, 

"Your  faithful  servant, 

PEEL." 


The  office  was  granted,  and  he  had  the  satisfaction  to 
hear  that  the  young  man  was  found  most  efficient  in  it. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  279 

He  shortly  after  sent  Sir  Robert  Peel  liis  works,  with 
the  "  sincere  respect  and  esteem  of  the  author"  written 
on  the  title-page.  He  received  the  following  answer : 

"  WHITEHALL. 
"DEAR    SlR, 

"  Though  you  have  not  opened  to  me  any  new  source 
of  interest  or  instruction,  I  thank  you  sincerely  for  the 
volumes  you  have  sent  me,  and  for  the  few  words  in  the 
first  page  which  put  on  record  my  title  to  them. 

"  They  arc  duplicates  of  a  work  which  has  been  in 
my  possession  since  the  first  day  of  its  publication.  1 
am  very  familiar  with  its  contents ;  and  have  no  feel 
ing  connected  with  my  general  recollection  of  them,  but 
those  to  which  the  combination  of  good  sense,  wit,  and 
genius  naturally  give  rise. 
"Believe  me,  my  dear  Sir,  very  faithfully  yours, 

"ROBERT  PEEL." 

The  following  are  a  few  notes  from  the  journal  of  a 
lady,  since  distinguished,  botli  by  her  talents  and  the 
use  she  has  made  of  them,  who  formed  the  acquaint 
ance  of  my  father  many  years  ago.  She  gave  them  to 
me,  adding,  prettily,  the  pleasure  it  gave  her  to  be  able, 
by  so  doing,  to  throw  one  more  stone  on  my  father's 
cairn.  With  these  I  have  mingled  some  few  anecdotes 
from  other  sources. 

"If  I  recollect  right,  it  was  about  the  year  1812  that 
I  first  had  the  gratification  to  meet  Mr.  Sydney  Smith 
— it  was  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Josiah  Wedgcwood.  He 
arrived  about  the  middle  of  the  day,  with  his  wife  and 
children.  He  entered,  and  in  an  instant  made  eveiy 
body  feel  at  their  ease,  and  infused  a  portion  of  his 
own  animation  into  all  around  him.  I  remember  him 
standing  with  his  back  to  the  fire,  or  leaning  over  the 


280  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

back  of  liis  chair,  conversing  with  us  for  several  hours. 
The  conversation  turned,  among  other  things,  on  poli 
tics.  '  I  consider  the  Whigs  as  shipwrecked  forever ; 
no  chance  of  my  being  made  even  a  dean ;  so  I  have 
laid  down  my  plan  of  life.  I  will  make  myself,  if  not 
as  rich  as  others,  at  least  as  rich  and  happy  as  an  hon 
est  man  can  be.'  The  next  morning  he  took  a  long- 
walk  over  the  hills  with  us ;  and  most  agreeable  he 
was,  giving  out  his  mind  with  a  variety  and  abundance 
of  ideas  which  delighted  us,  and  showed  how  little  need 
he  had  of  external  excitement  to  call  forth  his  powers 
of  wit  and  wisdom.  He  was  at  this  time  stout  made, 
his  face  handsome,  with  that  pale  embonpoint  which 
always  distinguished  him,  and  his  remarkable  deep  dark 
eye,  which  I  think  retained  its  character  even  to  the  last ; 
indeed,  I  should  say,  never  was  the  external  appearance 
of  any  man  less  altered  by  years  than  his.  When  speak 
ing  of  the  impression  made  by  his  manner  and  appear 
ance,  his  delightful  laugh  must  not  be  forgotten — so 
genuine,  so  full  of  hearty  enjoyment,  that  it  was  a  source 
of  gayety  only  to  hear  it.  It  was  his  custom  to  stroll 
about  the  room  in  which  we  were  sitting,  and  which 
was  lined  with  books,  taking  down  one  lot  after  an 
other,  sometimes  reading  or  quoting  aloud,  sometimes 
discussing  any  subject  that  arose.  He  took  down  a 
sort  of  record  of  those  men  who  had  lived  to  a  great 
age.  'A  record  of  little  value,'  said  Mrs.  W.,  'as  to 
live  longer  than  other  people  can  hardly  be  the  desire 
of  any  one.'  'It  is  not  so  much  the  longevity,'  he  an 
swered,  '  that  is  valued,  as  that  original  build  and  con 
stitution,  that  condition  of  health  and  habit  of  life,  which 
not  only  leads  to  longevity,  but  makes  life  enjoyable 
while  it  lasts,  that  renders  the  subject  interesting  and 
worth  inquiry.' 

"  '  I  think  a  good  life  of  Erasmus  much  wanted  ;  the 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  281 

rnild  conciliating  temper  of  the  subject  would  make  it  no 
unfit  theme  for  a  lady's  pen.' 

"'You  must  preach,  Mr.  Smith,'  said  Mrs.  W.  (it 
was  Saturday).  'We  must  go  and  try  the  pulpit, 
then,'  said  he,  'to  see  if  it  suits  me.'  So  to  the  church 
we  walked ;  and  how  he  amused  us  by  his  droll  way 
of  trying  the  pulpit,  as  he  called  it ;  his  criticisms  on 
the  little  old-fashioned  sounding-board,  which  seemed 
ready  to  fall  on  his  head,  and  which,  he  said,  would 
infallibly  extinguish  him !  '  I  can't  bear,'  said  he,  '  to 
be  imprisoned  in  the  true  orthodox  way  in  my  pulpit, 
with  my  head  just  peeping  above  the  desk.  I  like  to 
look  down  upon  my  congregation — to  fire  into  them. 
The  common  people  say  I  am  a  bould  preacher,  for  I 
like  to  have  my  arms  free,  and  to  thump  the  pulpit. 
A  singular  contretem2)S  happened  to  me  once,  when,  to 
eifect  this,  I  had  ordered  the  clerk  to  pile  up  some  has 
socks  for  me  to  stand  on.  My  text  was,  "We  are 
perplexed,  but  not  in  despair;  persecuted,  but  not  for 
saken;  cast  down,  but  not  destroyed/'  I  had  scarcely 
uttered  these  words,  and  was  preparing  to  illustrate  them, 
when  I  did  so  practically,  and  in  a  way  I  had  not  at 
all  anticipated.  My  fabric  of  hassocks  suddenly  gave 
way;  down  I  fell,  and  with  difficulty  prevented  my 
self  from  being  precipitated  into  the  arms  of  my  con 
gregation  ;  who,  I  must  say,  behaved  very  well,  and 
recovered  their  gravity  sooner  than  I  could  have  ex 
pected.  But  my  adventure  was  not  so  bad  as  that  of  a 
friend  of  mine.  A  tame  raven  had  got  into  the  church ; 
no  sooner  did  he  begin  his  sermon,  than  the  raven,  in 
high  caw,  rushed  at  his  book,  seized  it  in  his  bill,  and 
had  almost  effected  his  escape  with  it,  before  the  aston 
ished  preacher  was  aware  of  his  danger.  He  caught  at 
it,  however ;  therbird  pulled  and  cawed,  he  tugged  and 
scolded ;  the  congregation  were  to  a  man  with  the  bird, 


282  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

who  fought  valiantly  for  his  prize ;  and  it  was  not  till 
after  a  severe  struggle,  in  which  victory  remained  for  a 
long  time  doubtful,  that  my  friend  rescued  his  sermon 
and  "banished  his  enemy,  amidst  the  roars  of  laughter  of 
his  congregation.' 

"  I  have  never  seen  any  one  who  approached  Syd 
ney  Smith  in  power  of  thought,  united  with  the  great 
est  candor.  He  was  one  who  saw  subjects  on  all  sides 
from  the  height  of  an  elevated  genius.  His  reputation 
has  been  much  founded  on  his  powers  of  entertaining, 
which  are  very  great,  indeed  unrivaled ;  yet  I  prefer  his 
serious  conversation.  One  morning,  seeing  me  loung 
ing  in  the  library,  looking  at  idle  books,  he  took  down 
'Berkeley  on  Vision,'  and  advised  me  to  read  it,  as  ex 
cessively  ingenious  and  well  worth  making  myself  ac 
quainted  with. 

"  'Live,'  said  lie,  'always  in  the  best  company  when 
you  read.  Xo  one  in  youth  thinks  on  the  value  of 
time.  Do  you  ever  reflect  how  you  pass  your  life  ?  If 
you  live  to  seventy-two,  which  I  hope  you  may,  your 
life  is  spent  in  the  following  manner :  An  hour  a  day 
is  three  years  ;  this  makes  twenty-seven  years  sleeping, 
nine  years  dressing,  nine  years  at  table,  six  years  play 
ing  with  children,  nine  years  walking,  drawing,  and  vis 
iting,  six  years  shopping,  and  three  years  quarreling.'  I 
did  not  then  perhaps  value  these  marks  of  interest  in  the 
progress  of  a  young  girl's  mind  as  I  have  learned  to  do 
since. 

"In  1816  I  had  again  the  happiness  to  pass  a  few 
days  with  Mr.  Smith  in  the  same  family,  and  we  found 
him,  if  possible,  still  more  delightful  than  before :  he 
would  sit  for  hours  with  us  by  the  fire,  discoursing  and 
making  us  all  wiser  and  better,  and  of  course  most  proud 
and  happy,  by  his  notice.  One  day  he  took  a  walk  by 
the  canal :  he  put  a  case  of  morality :  a  man  digging  a 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  283 

canal  discovers  some  limestone-rock,  waits  till  the  land 
comes  into  the  market,  purchases  it,  and  makes  a  great 
deal  of  money  by  his  discovery.  I  doubted  whether  the 
man  was  right ;  he  maintained  the  man  had  a  right  to 
profit  by  his  own  discovery.  The  discussion  lasted  long, 
but  I  only  recollect  the  patience  he  had  with  my  argu 
ments  ;  and  though  he  did  not  succeed  in  converting  me 
to  his  opinion  at  that  time,  he  did  not  make  me  feel  afraid 
to  own  it  to  him. 

"  'Keep  as  much  as  possible  in  the  grand  and  com 
mon  road  of  life ;  patent  educations  or  habits  seldom 
succeed.  Depend  upon  it,  men  set  more  value  on  the 
cultivated  minds  than  on  the  accomplishments  of  wom 
en,  which  they  are  rarely  able  to  appreciate.  It  is  a 
common  error,  but  it  is  an  error,  that  literature  unfits 
women  for  the  every-day  business  of  life.  It  is  not  so 
with  men :  you  see  those  of  the  most  cultivated  minds 
constantly  devoting  their  time  and  attention  to  the  most 
homely  objects.  Literature  gives  women  a  real  and 
proper  weight  in  society,  but  then  they  must  use  it 
with  discretion ;  if  the  stocking  is  blue,  the  petticoat 
must  be  long,  as  my  friend  Jeffrey  says ;  the  want  of 
this  has  furnished  food  for  ridicule  in  all  ages.' 

"'Never  give  way  to  melancholy;  resist  it  steadily, 
for  the  habit  will  encroach.  I  once  gave  a  lady  two- 
and-twenty  recipes  against  melancholy :  one  was  a 
bright  fire  ;  another,  to  remember  all  the  pleasant  things 
said  to  and  of  her ;  another,  to  keep  a  box  of  sugar 
plums  on  the  chimney-piece,  and  a  kettle  simmering  on 
the  hob.'  I  thought  this  mere  trifling  at  the  moment, 
but  have  in  after-life  discovered  how  true  it  is  that  these 
little  pleasures  often  banish  melancholy  better  than 
higher  and  more  exalted  objects  ;  and  that  no  means 
ought  to  be  thought  too  trifling  which  can  oppose  it 
either  in  ourselves  or  others. 


284-  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  '  Oh !  I  am  happy  to  see  all  wlio  will  visit  me ;  I 
have  lived  twenty  years  in  tlie  country,  and  have  never 
met  a  bore.' 

"  '  Industry !  you  may  do  any  thing  with  industry. 
A  friend  of  mine  has  mastered  Greek,  Latin,  mathe 
matics,  and  music,  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  together 
with  all  the  ologies  /  and  yet,  without  any  remarkable 
abilities,  by  industry  alone.' 

"  '  The  Law  is  decidedly  the  best  profession  for  a 
young  man,  if  he  has  any  thing  in  him.  In  the  Church 
a  man  is  thrown  into  life  with  his  hands  tied,  and  bid 
to  swim  ;  he  does  well  if  he  keeps  his  head  above  water. 
But  then  in  the  law  he  must  have  a  stout  heart  and  an 
iron  digestion,  and  must  be  regular  as  the  town  clock, 
or  he  may  as  well  retire.  Attorneys  expect  in  a  law 
yer  the  constancy  of  the  turtle-dove.' 

"  Some  one  said  it  was  fool-hardy  in  General  Fitz- 
patrick  to  insist  upon  going  up  alone  in  the  balloon, 
when  it  was  found  there  was  not  force  to  carry  up  two. 
'ISTo,'  he  said,  'there  is  always  something  sublime  in 
sacrificing  to  great  principles ;  his  profession  was  cour 
age.' 

"Many  years  after,  I  met  him  at  the  house  of  a  re 
lation  in  London.  He  called  in  on  his  way  from  some 
dinner-party  or  other;  he  was  in  high  spirits,  and  never, 
I  think,  did  such  a  torrent  of  wit,  fun,  nonsense,  pointed 
remark,  just  observation,  and  happy  illustration,  flow 
pellmell  from  the  lips  of  a  man.  That  is  the  only  time 
in  my  life  that  I  ever  saw  him  in  what  is  called  full 
force,  and  it  made  an  impression  on  me  which  I  can 
never  forget. 

"  I  saw  him  again  after  the  appearance  of  my  first 
book.  How  kind  he  was  !  how  happy  and  polite  were 
the  things  he  said  upon  the  occasion !  How  few  have 
the  art  to  do  such  things  so  well !  He  made  me  sit  by 


MEMOIR  OF  THE    REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  285 

him,  and  paid  me  the  refined  compliment  of  letting  me 
feel  that  he  thought  my  mind  worth  inquiring  into. 
After  this  I  saw  him  only  as  one  of  the  general  circle, 
collected  around  him  in  a  London  drawing-room,  where 
he  kept  up  the  ball  of  conversation  Iby  his  irresistible 
and  inexhaustible  fun  and  fancy ;  but  I  still,  as  in  early 
life,  continued  to  prefer  his  serious  conversation — his 
wisdom  to  his  wit" 


CHAPTER    XI. 

Pamphlet  on  Ballot. — Fragment  on  Irish  Church. — Letter  from  Lord 
Murray. — Lines  written  on  receiving  Garden-chair. — Lines  by  Lady 
Carlisle. — Christens  child. — Sketch  of  Life  and  Conversation  at 
Combe  Florey. — Advice  to  Parishioners. — Conversation. — Medicines 
for  the  Poor. — Saves  Servant's  Life. — Fallacies. — Studies. — Kecipe 
for  Salad. — Letter  of  Marion  de  Lorme. — Imitation  of  Sir  James 
Mackintosh. — Close  of  the  Day. 

AFTER  this  period,  the  only  things  he  wrote  were  a 
short  pamphlet  on  the  ballot,  which  went  through  many 
editions,  and  had  much  success ;  and  the  Fragment  on 
Ireland,  which  he  left  "behind,  and  which  my  mother 
published  after  his  death ;  showing  that  lie  died  as  he 
had  lived,  earnest  in  the  cause  of  religious  toleration 
and  the  amelioration  of  Ireland.  But  though  he  did 
not  live  to  see  all  he  wished  in  Ireland  accomplished, 
yet,  as  Johnson  says,  "  he  who  is  cut  off  in  the  execu 
tion  of  an  honest  undertaking,  has  at  least  the  honor  of 
falling  in  his  rank,  and  has  fought  the  battle,  though 
he  missed  the  victory." 

In  the  autumn,  hearing  that  his  friend  Mr.  Van  de 
"Weyer  and  his  family  were  coming  into  the  west,  my 
father  sent  him  the  following  note : 

«  October,  1843. 

"  Health  to  the  greatest  of  diplomatists,  and,  to  the  Bel 
gian  kingdom,  trade,  glory,  and  peace !  You  must  not 
pass  this  way  without  visiting  Combe  Florey ;  we  shall 
expect  you  on  the  9th — we  dine  at  seven — Madame  Van 
de  Weyer,  you,  and  the  little  embassador.  We  are  six 
miles  from  Taunton,  and  Taunton  is  an  hour  and  a  half 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  287 

from  Bristol.  If  you  write  to  Sweet's  Hotel,  they  will 
have  horses  ready  for  you,  and  the  people  know  the  way 
to  my  house.  Pray  write  a  line  to  say  whether  we  may 
expect  you ;  we  shall  be  delighted  to  see  you,  and  truly 
mortified  to  miss  you. 

"Yours  ever  very  truly, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

They  came  and  spent  a  day  or  two  with  us ;  days, 
alas !  of  incessant  rain,  putting  the  charms  of  the  little 
parsonage  to  the  severest  trial.  But  if  it  was  dark  and 
gloomy  without,  it  was  all  gayety  and  sunshine  within; 
for  our  guests  came  disposed  to  be  pleased  with  every 
thing  they  found,  and  the  intercourse  of  two  such  re 
markable  men  as  Mr.  Van  de  Wcyer  and  my  father,  both 
loving  to  exercise  their  minds  on  grave  and  important 
subjects,  and  both  possessing  such  a  fund  of  knowledge, 
wit,  anecdote,  and  clever  nonsense,  to  intermingle  with 
them,  made  one  quite  forget  the  passage  of  time,  and  the 
visit  seemed  over  almost  as  soon  as  begun.  They  left 
us  on  the  most  lovely  morning,  when  Combe  Florey  had 
put  on  her  gayest  and  freshest  garb ;  and  carried  away, 
I  trust,  as  agreeable  impressions  as  they  left  behind.  In 
the  evening  of  the  same  day  arrived  Mr.  Van  de  Wey- 
er's  secretary,  bearing  a  summons  to  Windsor,  which, 
owing  to  Mr.  Van  de  Weycr's  movements,  had  remained 
some  days  unnoticed,  and  it  became  necessary  to  follow 

him  to  Bowood  immediately.     But  as  Mr.  De  la  P 

could  not  arrive  till  one  or  two  in  the  morning,  my  father 
thought  Madame  Van  de  Wcyer  might  be  much  alarmed 
by  suddenly  hearing,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  that  a 
messenger  had  arrived  from  home,  and  it  was  agreed 
that  Mr.  De  la  Pe —  —  should  send  in  the  following  note, 
to  set  their  minds  at  ease. 


288  MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 


"DEAR  VAN  DE  WEYER, 

"  Long  live  the  Belgiac  lion !  long  may  lie  roar  over 
the  tiger  of  France  !     You  are  wanted  at  Windsor.     De 

la  P is  below.     The  young  embassador  and  all  the 

children,  and  all  the  grandpapas,  are  quite  well.  There 
is  an  air  of  piety  in  De  la  P —  -  that  is  very  agreeable 
to  me. 

"Ever  yours, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH. 
"  Get  up  immediately." 

And  he  wrote  at  more  length,  to  explain,  as  he  says, 
his  share  in  the  transaction. 

"  DEAR  VAN  DE  WEYER, 

"  Let  me  explain  my  share  in  the  proceedings.     Be 
tween  five  and  six  o'clock  appeared,  in  a  fly,  a  grave 

person,  who  denominated  himself  Octave  de  la  P , 

in  search  of  you.  I  concluded,  by  the  solemnity  of  his 
aspect,  that  he  was  come  to  announce  the  last  days  of 
the  Belgian  monarchy.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  to  car 
ry  you  off  to  the  Castle  at  Windsor.  He  could  not  go 
from  hence,  seeing  the  time  of  his  arrival,  till  the  eleven 
o'clock  train ;  and  as  he  was  resolute  to  have  you,  and 
I  believe  Madame  also,  in  London  by  six  o'clock  to 
morrow,  we  agreed  that  nothing  remained  but  to  proceed 
to  Chippenham  in  the  train,  to  extract  you  from  Bowood, 
and  to  convey  you  to  the  Metropolis.  I  told  him  he 
would  be  most  probably  shot  at  Bowood  by  the  watch 
man  ;  but  he  declared  that  his  papers  were  all  in  order, 
and  to  die  in  the  performance  of  his  duty  was  a  glorious 
death  for  a  Belgian.  I  wrote  a  jocular  note  to  send  up 
to  your  bedside,  that  you  might  not  be  alarmed  about 
your  children. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH.  289 

"  If  Octave  do  la  P —   -  lias  perished  in  the  invasion 
of  Bowood,  I  certify  tliat  lie  died  with  the  deepest  ad 
miration  of  the  ever-memorable  Belgic  revolution. 
"  Yours  very  truly, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

"  October  12th,  1843." 

A  short  time  before  my  father's  death,  Lord  Jeffrey 
had  likewise  made  a  collection  of  his  contributions  to 
the  Edinburgh  Review  ;  which  collection  he  did  my 
father  the  honor  to  dedicate  to  him,  and,  by  a  few  words 
in  it,  confirmed  my  father's  account  of  its  origin.  1 
have  heard  my  father  say  that  there  was  hardly  any 
event  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  that  had  gratified 
him  more  deeply  than  this  dedication  from  his  old  friend, 
Lord  Jeffrey. 

As  I  am  anxious  to  make  this  sketch  of  my  father  as 
complete  as  possible,  I  shall  here  insert  a  few  extracts 
from  a  letter,  containing  his  recollections  of  him,  written 
at  my  request  by  Lord  Murray ;  who  speaks  not  only 
with  the  authority  of  his  own  high  character,  but  of 
early  acquaintance,  and  an  unbroken  friendship  of  half 
a  century. 

"  Sydney's  acute  and  almost  intuitive  perception  of 
character  made  him  at  once  detect  whatever  was  ficti 
tious  or  assumed ;  but  though  this  never  escaped  his 
keen  observation,  he  was,  I  firmly  believe,  more  severe 
toward  himself  than  he  was  ever  toward  any  other  per 
son.  His  disgust  at  hypocrisy  made  him  so  anxious  to 
avoid  the  semblance  of  any  attempt  to  appear  better 
than  he  was,  that  he  did  not  always  do  himself  justice. 
Many,  I  should  say  most,  of  his  just  or  benevolent  ac 
tions  were  only  known  to  his  most  intimate  friends,  and 
VOL.  L—  N 


290  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

that  accidentally.*  The  goodness  of  his  heart  was  only 
revealed  by  his  acts. 

"He  was  so  free  and  open  in  discourse,  that  he  gave 
all  manner  of  advantage  to  those  who  were  disposed  to 
distrust  a  person  overflowing  in  genial  wit  and  humor. 

"Though  Sydney  Smith  could  not  avoid  being  con 
scious  of  his  great  powers  of  writing  and  speaking,  I 
firmly  believe  that  his  estimate  of  himself  and  of  his 
own  character  were  truly  humble.  He  was  ready  to 
acknowledge  the  superiority  of  persons  whose  abilities 
were  inferior  to  his  own.  He  claimed  little  more  for 
himself  than  practical  common  sense ;  but  though  this 
was  all  he  claimed,  he  could  not  help  clothing  his  sound 
sense  with  language  which  was  beautiful,  and  at  the 
same  time  more  witty  and  humorous  than  that  of  other 
men.  Yet,  putting  himself  lower  in  the  scale,  I  believe, 
than  he  had  a  fair  right  to  be,  he  never  acquiesced  in 
any  opinions  in  which  he  did  not  agree,  though  coming 
from  the  highest  station,  either  secular  or  clerical.  The 
higher  they  were,  the  more  he  considered  it  his  duty  to 
discuss  and  examine  the  opinions  they  proclaimed  to 
the  public.  In  doing  so  he  felt  he  was  vindicating  the 
rights  of  the  humblest  curate  in  the  Church,  or  defend 
ing  those  who  could  not  defend  themselves  from  the  at 
tacks  of  men  in  high  stations,  who  often  made  them  in 
places  where  they  could  not  be  otherwise  refuted. 

"Whether  he  did  not  render  a  greater  service  to  the 
public  and  to  his  profession  by  this  intrepid  conduct, 
than  he  could  have  done  by  the  most  respectful  and  sub 
missive  silence,  it  is  for  others  to  determine ;  but  his 
fearless  assertion  of  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  right, 
is  perfectly  consistent  with  the  most  modest  estimate  of 
his  own  merits. 

*  Many  as  I  have  told,  how  many  more  I  have  been  obliged  to  sup 
press,  from  reasons  easily  understood  ! — Author. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  291 

"  Sydney  Smitli  thought  it  right  and  honest  to  act 
openly,  and  avow  whatever  he  wrote,  without  regard  to 
any  personal  consequence  that  might  result  to  himself. 
There  are  some  men  who,  if  a  serious  truth  is  to  be 
supported  or  enforced,  insist  that  every  argument  or  il 
lustration  should  be  equally  solemn  and  grave.  They 
forget  that  a  person  of  Sydney  Smith's  powers  would 
be  but  half  an  ally  if  he  did  not  employ  the  wit  and  hu 
mor  with  which  he  was  endowed  to  enforce  truth  or  ex 
pose  pretension.  Such  men  would  prefer  the  dullest  ar 
gument  to  the  most  withering  and  convincing  exposure 
of  a  fallacy. 

"A  foreigner,  on  one  occasion,  indulging  in  skeptical 
doubts  of  the  existence  of  an-  overruling  Providence  in 
his  presence,  Sydney,  who  had  observed  him  evidently 
well  satisfied  with  his  repast,  said,  'You  must  admit 
there  is  great  genius  and  thought  in  that  dish.'  'Ad 
mirable!'  he  replied ;  'nothing  can  be  better.'  'May  I 
then  ask,  are  you  prepared  to  deny  the  existence  of  the 
cook  ?'  Many  anecdotes  equally  characteristic  might  be 
furnished  by  his  old  friends,  but  I  fear  to  repeat  what 
you  may  have  already  been  told,  and  have  merely  hinted 
at  some  traits  of  Sydney's  character  known  only  to  his 
most  intimate  friends." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  some  lines  written 
on  receiving  the  present  of  my  father's  garden-chair,  after 
his  death,  from  the  Rector  of  Combe  Florey,  by  a  friend 
and  neighbor : 


o 


"  Thanks  for  thy  gift !  'twill  ofttimcs  bring  to  mind 
A  friend  who  was  the  friend  of  human  kind  ; 
A  man  who  had  no  equal  among  men, 
Whene'er  he  chose  to  wield  the  moral  pen. 
For  wit,  truth,  genius,  courage,  all  conspired 
To  make  (and  made  at  last)  a  sage  inspired, 
Whom  wise  men  loved,  and  even  wits  admired. 


292  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  Whate'er  was  true,  he  loved ;  but  all  pretense, 
Pride  without  merit,  learning  without  sense, 
Small  niggard  piety,  which  deals  in  tracts, 
And  substitutes  cant  words  for  Christian  acts, 
He  hated.     And  most  holy  war  did  wage 
With  each  Tartuffe,  who  shamed  our  English  stage. 

"  Peace  to  his  spirit !  many  a  year  will  run 
Into  oblivion  ere  another  sun 
Like  his  will  rise  and  lend  the  world  its  light. 
Honor  to  him !  to  thee  thanks,  and  good  night !" 

I  find  some  lines  in  a  letter  from  Lady  Carlisle  (one 
of  the  kindest  and  warmest  of  my  father's  friends)  to  my 
mother,  written  soon  after  his  death,  on  passing  within 
sight  of  Foston.  They  have  been  carefully  preserved  by 
my  mother ;  and  though  meant  for  no  eye  but  hers,  my 
father  so  valued  any  proof  of  Lady  Carlisle's  regard,  that 
I  must  not  omit  them  here. 

"  Is  that  the  roof,  to  friendship  dear, 

Where  Genius  once,  with  matchless  ray, 
Illumined  all  within  its  sphere, 

And  all  was  brilliant,  all  was  gay  ? 

"  Yes  !  there  the  joyous  laugh  was  raised, 

And  converse  held  with  social  glee. 
Sydney,  by  wits  and  sages  praised, 

Shall  still  be  loved  and  mourned  by  me." 

I  might,  to  these  little  tributes  of  affection  which  I 
have  already  given,  add  such  a  list  of  mourners  for  his 
loss  (whose  letters  have  all  been  preserved  by  my  poor 
mother*),  as  would  claim  respect  for  any  life,  and  do 
honor  to  any  grave.  But  if  I  have  not  already  suc- 

*  After  my  father's  death,  it  was  the  great  comfort  and  occupation 
of  my  mother's  life  to  collect  and  arrange  my  father's  letters  and  pa 
pers,  for  the  purpose  of  this  Memoir,  and  her  labors  have  contributed 
not  a  little  toward  its  accomplishment.  In  one  of  her  letters  to  me, 
my  mother  says,  "  You  know  the  great  occupation  of  my  life  has  been 
to  collect  materials  for  some  future  memorial  of  my  noble-hearted  hus 
band."  And  again,  "Time  goes  rapidly  on;  I  tremble  at  each  day's 
delay.  To  have  this  matter  unsettled  is  the  only  thing  that  makes  death 
terrible." 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  EEV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  293 

ceeded  in  showing  by  his  actions  how  worthy  he  was 
to  be  respected  in  life,  and  to  be  mourned  in  death,  I 
fear  I  shall  derive  little  aid  even  from  such  names,  and 
might  run  the  risk  of  wearying  my  readers.  I  will 
therefore  go  on  with  what  little  remains  to  tell  of  my 
narrative. 

My  father  "  was  sitting  at  breakfast  one  morning  in 
the  library  at  Combe  Florey,"  said  Mrs.  Marcet,  who 
was  staying  with  us,  "when  a  poor  woman  came,  beg 
ging  him  to  christen  a  new-born  infant,  without  loss 
of  time,  as  she  thought  it  was  dying.  Mr.  Smith  in 
stantly  quitted  the  breakfast-table  for  this  purpose,  and 
went  off  to  her  cottage.  On  his  return,  we  inquired 
in  what  state  he  had  left  the  poor  babe.  'Why,'  said 
he,  <  I  first  gave  it  a  dose  of  castor-oil,  and  then  I 
christened  it ;  so  now  the  poor  child  is  ready  for  either 
world.'" 

I  long  to  give  some  sketch  of  these  breakfasts,  and 
the  mode  of  life  at  Combe  Florey,  where  there  were 
often  assembled  guests  that  would  have  made  any  table 
agreeable  any  where ;  but  it  would  be  difficult  to  con 
vey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  beauty,  gayety,  and  happi 
ness  of  the  scene  in  which  they  took  place,  or  the  charm 
that  he  infused  into  the  society  assembled  round  his 
breakfast-table.  The  room,  an  oblong,  was,  as  I  have 
already  described,  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  books, 
and  ended  in  a  bay-window  opening  into  the  garden  :  not 
brown,  dark,  dull-looking  volumes,  but  all  in  the  bright 
est  bindings  ;  for  he  carried  his  system  of  furnishing  for 
gayety  even  to  the  dress  of  his  books. 

He  would  come  down  into  this  long,  low  room  in 
the  morning  like  a  "giant  refreshed  to  run  his  course," 
bright  and  happy  as  the  scene  around  him.  "  Thank 
God  for  Combe  Florey!"  he  would  exclaim,  throwing 
himself  into  his  red  arm-chair,  and  looking  round;  "I 


294  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

feel  like  a  bridegroom  in  the  honeymoon."  And  in 
truth  I  doubt  if  ever  bridegroom  felt  so  joyous,  or  at 
least  made  others  feel  so  joyous,  as  he  did  on  these 
occasions.  "King  the  bell,  Saba;"  the  usual  refrain, 
by-the-by,  in  every  pause,  for  he  contrived  to  keep 
every  body  actively  employed  around  him,  and  nobody 
ever  objected  to  be  so  employed.  "King  the  bell, 

Saba."     Enter  the  servant,  D .      "D ,  glorify 

the  room."*  This  meant  that  the  three  Venetian  win 
dows  of  the  bay  were  to  be  flung  open,  displaying  the 
garden  on  every  side,  and  letting  in  a  blaze  of  sun 
shine  and  flowers.  D glorifies  the  room  with  the 

utmost  gravity,  and  departs.  "You  would  not  believe 
it,"  he  said,  "to  look  at  him  now,  but  D is  a  re 
formed  Quaker.  Yes,  he  quaked,  or  did  quake ;  his 
brother  quakes  still:  but  D —  -  is  now  thoroughly 
orthodox.  I  should  not  like  to  be  a  Dissenter  in  his 
way ;  he  is  to  be  one  of  my  vergers  at  St.  Paul's  some 

day.     Lady  B calls  them  my  virgins.      She  asked 

me  the  other  day,  '  Pray,  Mr.  Smith,  is  it  true  that  you 
walk  down  St.  Paul's  with  three  virgins  holding  silver 
pokers  before  you  ?'  I  shook  my  head,  and  looked  very 
grave,  and  bid  her  come  and  see.  Some  enemy  of  the 
Church,  some  Dissenter,  had  clearly  been  misleading 
her." 

"  There,  now,"  sitting  down  at  the  breakfast-table, 
"  take  a  lesson  of  economy.  You  never  breakfasted  in 
a  parsonage  before,  did  you  ?  There,  you  see,  my  china 
is  all  white,  so  if  broken  can  always  be  renewed;  the 

*  On  reading  this  passage  to  two  very  sensible  persons,  I  was  advised 
to  omit  this  expression,  as  it  might  give  offense.  At  first  I  did  so,  but 
on  reflection  I  am  inclined  to  say,  with  our  old  English  motto,  "  Honi 
soit  qui  mal  y  pense !"  In  my  father's  mouth  it  meant  only  "Let  in 
the  glorious  light  and  the  beautiful  world ;"  and  instead  of  any  thing  ir 
reverent,  his  heart  was  overflowing  with  gratitude  and  happiness,  and  he 
thanked  God  with  his  whole  heart  for  the  beautiful  world  in  which  he 
had  placed  him. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  2iC> 

same  with  my  plates  at  dinner:  did  you  observe  my 
plates  ?  every  one  a  different  pattern,  some  of  them 
sweet  articles ;  it  was  a  pleasure  to  dine  upon  such  a 
plate  as  I  had  last  night.  It  is  true,  Mrs.  Sydney,  who 
is  a  great  herald,  is  shocked  because  some  of  them  have 
the  arms  of  a  royal  duke  or  a  knight  of  the  garter  on 
them,  but  that  does  not  signify  to  me.  My  plan  is  to 
go  into  a  china-shop  and  bid  them  show  me  every  plate 
they  have  which  does  n-ot  cost  more  than  half  a  crown ; 
you  see  the  result." 

"I  think  breakfasts  so  pleasant  because  no  one  is 
conceited  before  one  o'clock." 

Mrs.  Marcet  admired  his  ham.  "  Oh,"  said  he,  "  our 
hams  are  the  only  true  hams ;  yours  are  Shems  and 
Japhets." 

Some  one  speaking  of  the  character  and  writings  of 
Mr.  —  — :  "  Yes,  I  have  the  greatest  possible  respect  for 
him ;  but,  from  his  feeble  voice,  he  always  reminds  me 
of  a  liberal  blue-bottle  fly.  He  gets  his  head  down  and 
his  hand  on  your  button,  and  pours  into  you  an  uninter 
rupted  stream  of  Whiggism  in  a  low  buzz.  I  have 
known  him  intimately,  and  conversed  constantly  with 
him  for  the  last  thirty  years,  and  give  him  credit  for  the 
most  enlightened  mind,  and  a  genuine  love  of  public  vir 
tue  ;  but  I  can  safely  say  that  during  that  period  I  have 
never  heard  one  single  syllabic  he  has  uttered." 

Mrs.  Marcet  complaining  she  could  not  sleep:  "  I  can 
furnish  you, "he  said,  "with  a  perfect  soporific.  I  have 
published  two  volumes  of  sermons ;  take  them  to  bed 
with  you.  I  recommended  them  once  to  Blanco  White, 
and  before  the  third  page  he  was  fast." 

"  This  is  the  only  sensible  spring  I  remember  (1840): 
it  is  a  real  March  of  intellect." 

"  If  I  were  to  select  a  figure  to  go  through  life  with, 
I  think  it  should  be  Windhain's  figure  and  Canning's 
face." 


296  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  I  make  it  a  rale  to  endure  no  evil  that  can  be  reme 
died.  D laughs  at  me  for  my  inventions  and  con 
trivances  ;  "but  what  is  the  consequence  of  his  indolence  ? 
I  go  to  his  house,  and  find  him  sitting  in  his  arm-chair, 
waging  war  against  human  existence,  and  a  prey  to  blue- 
devils  :  and  all  because  his  pens  won't  write,  his  ink 
won't  mark,  his  sealing-wax  won't  melt,  his  fires  won't 
burn,  his  blinds  won't  pull  up  or  down,  and  his  windows 
and  doors  won't  open  and  shut — evils  which  a  nail,  a 
drop  of  water,  or  five  minutes'  exertion  would  have  re 
medied." 

On  seeing  a  very  foolish  letter  by  an  acquaintance  in 
the  newspapers:  "There!  read  that!  what  incredible 
folly !  You  pity  a  man  who  is  lame  or  blind,  but  you 
never  pity  him  for  being  a  fool,  which  is  often  a  much 
greater  misfortune." 

Miss  Fox  was  mentioned,  who  was  at  that  time  at 
Bowood :  "  Oh,  she  is  perfection ;  she  always  gives  me 
the  idea  of  an  aged  angel." 

Some  one  speaking  of  the  utility  of  a  measure,  and 

quoting 's  opinion:  "Yes,  he  is  of  the  Utilitarian 

school.  That  man  is  so  hard  you  might  drive  a  broad- 
wheeled  wagon  over  him,  and  it  would  produce  no  im 
pression  ;  if  you  were  to  bore  holes  in  him  with  a  gim 
let,  I  am  convinced  sawdust  would  come  out  of  him. 
That  school  treat  mankind  as  if  they  were  mere  ma 
chines  ;  the  feelings  or  affections  never  enter  into  their 
calculations.  If  every  thing  is  to  be  sacrificed  to  utility, 
why  do  you  bury  your  grandmother  at  all?  why  don't 
you  cut  her  into  small  pieces  at  once,  and  make  porta 
ble  soup  of  her  ? 

"  By-the-by,  talking  of  portable  soup,  my  great  neigh 
bor,  Lord  I) ,  found  it  necessary  to  look  a  little  into 

his  establishment ;  and  the  first  discovery  he  made  was 
that  his  cook  had  for  some  years  been  contracting  to  fur- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  297 

nisli  the  navy  with  portable  soup,  not  made  of  grand 
mothers,  but  at  his  expense." 

'k  I  always  say  to  young  people,  Beware  of  careless 
ness,  no  fortune  will  stand  it  long ;  you  arc  on  the  high 
road  to  ruin,  the  moment  you  think  yourself  rich  enough 
to  Tbe  careless." 

Speaking  of  education:  "Never  teach  false  morality. 
How  exquisitely  absurd  to  tell  girls  that  beauty  is  of  no 
value,  dress  of  no  use  !  Beauty  is  of  value ;  her  whole 
prospects  and  happiness  in  life  may  often  depend  upon 
a  new  gown  or  a  becoming  bonnet,  and  if  she  has  five 
grains  of  common  sense  she  will  find  this  out.  The 
great  thing  is  to  teach  her  their  just  value,  and  that 
there  must  be  something  better  under  the  bonnet  than 
a  pretty  face  for  real  happiness.  But  never  sacrifice 
truth." 

Talking  of  beauty  of  style :  "  What  so  beautiful  as 
that  of  the  Bible  ?  what  poetry  in  its  language  and  ideas ! " 
and  taking  it  down  from  the  bookcase  behind  him,  he 
read,  with  his  beautiful  voice,  and  in  his  most  impressive 
manner,  several  of  his  favorite  passages  ;  among  others  I 
remember — "Thou  shalt  rise  up  before  the  hoary  head, 
and  honor  the  face  of  an  old  man;"  and  part  of  that  most 
beautiful  of  Psalms,  the  139th:  "O  Lord,  thou  hast 
searched  me,  and  known  me.  Thou  knowest  my  down- 
sitting  and  mine  uprising ;  thou  understandest  my  thought 
afar  off.  Thou  compassest  my  path  and  my  lying  down, 
and  art  acquainted  with  all  my  ways.  .  .  .  Whither 
shall  I  go  from  thy  spirit  ?  or  whither  shall  I  flee  from 
thy  presence?  If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art 
there ;  if  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold,  thou  art  there. 
If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the  ut 
termost  parts  of  the  sea ;  even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead 
me,  and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me.  If  I  say,  Surely 
the  darkness  shall  cover  me,  even  the  night  shall  be  light 


298  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

about  me ;  yea,  the  darkness  liideth  not  from  tliee ;  but 
the  night  sliineth  as  the  day ;  the  darkness  and  the  light 
are  both  alike  to  thee" — putting  the  Bible  again  on  the 
shelf. 

"There  is  one  thing  I  feel  very  grateful  to  my  father 
for — having  taught  me  the  habit  of  immediately  hunting 
out  any  object  1  found  myself  ignorant  of."  "  Remem 
ber  that,  F—  -  (addressing  one  of  his  grandsons) ;  I 
have  found  it  most  useful :  never  submit  to  be  ignorant 
when  you  have  knowledge  at  your  elbow." 

Talking  of  punishments  :  "  Ah  1  that  is  all  very  well ; 
but  who  punishes  the  bore,  let  me  ask?  There  is  no 
social  crime  committed  with  such  impunity." 

"Have  you  never  observed  what  a  dislike  servants 
have  to  any  thing  cheap  ?  they  hate  saving  their  masters' 
money.  I  tried  this  experiment  with  great  success  the 
other  day.  Finding  we  consumed  a  great  deal  of  soap, 
I  sat  down  in  my  thinking-chair,  and  took  the  soap  ques 
tion  into  consideration,  and  I  found  reason  to  suspect 
that  we  were  using  a  very  expensive  article,  where  a 
much  cheaper  one  would  serve  the  purpose  better.  I  or 
dered  half-a-dozen  pounds  of  both  sorts,  but  took  the  pre 
caution  of  changing  the  papers  on  which  the  prices  were 
marked,  before  giving  theni:  into  the  hands  of  Betty. 
'Well,  Betty,  which  soap  do  you  find  washes  best?' 
'  Oh,  please  sir,  the  dearest,  in  the  blue  paper ;  it  makes 
a  lather  as  well  again  as  the  other.'  'Well,  Betty,  you 
shall  always  have  it,  then;'  and  thus  the  unsuspecting 
Betty  saved  me  some  pounds  a  year,  and  washed  the 
clothes  better." 

"Xo;  very  few  people  ever  were  so  wise  as  Aber- 
crombie  looked,  as  Fox  said  of  Thurlow." 

On  his  little  granddaughter  running  up  to  kiss  him : 
"Children  are  excellent  physiognomists,  and  soon  dis 
cover  their  real  friends.  Luttrcll  calls  them  all  lima- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH.  290 

tics  ;  and  so,  in  fact,  they  arc.      What  is  childhood  but 
a  series  of  happy  delusions  ?" 

"  It  is  lamentable  to  sec  how  ignorant  the  poor  are. 
I  do  not  mean  of  reading  and  writing,  Lut  about  the 
common  affairs  of  life.  They  are  as  helpless  as  chil 
dren  in  all  difficulties.  Nothing  would  be  so  useful  as 
some  short  and  cheap  book,  to  instruct  them  what  to 
do,  to  whom  to  go,  and  to  give  them  a  little  advice ;  I 
mean,  mere  practical  advice.  I  have  begun  something 
of  this  sort  for  my  parishioners  ;  here  it  is. 

"  Advice  to  Parishioners. 

"  If  you  begin  stealing  a  little,  you  will  go  on  from 
little  to  much,  and  soon  become  a  regular  thief;  and 
then  you  will  be  hanged,  or  sent  over  seas  to  Botany 
Bay.  And  give  me  leave  to  tell  you,  transportation  is 
no  joke.  Up  at  five  in  the  morning,  dressed  in  a  jacket 
half  blue  half  yellow,  chained  on  to  another  person  like 
two  dogs,  a  man  standing  over  you  with  a  great  stick, 
weak  porridge  for  breakfast,  bread  and  water  for  dinner, 
boiled  beans  for  supper,  straw  to  lie  upon ;  and  all  this 
for  thirty  years ;  and  then  you  are  hanged  there  by  or 
der  of  the  governor,  without  judge  or  jury.  All  this  is 
very  disagreeable,  and  you  had  far  better  avoid  it  by 
making  a  solemn  resolution  to  take  nothing  which  does 
not  belong  to  you. 

"Never  sit  in  wet  clothes.  Off  with  them  as  soon  as 
you  can  :  no  constitution  can  stand  it.  Look  at  Jackson, 
who  lives  next  door  to  the  blacksmith  ;  he  was  the  stron 
gest  man  in  the  parish.  Twenty  different  times  I  warned 
him  of  his  folly  in  wearing  wet  clothes.  He  pulled  off  his 
hat  and  smiled,  and  was  very  civil,  but  clearly  seemed 
to  think  it  all  old  woman's  nonsense.  He  is  now,  as  you 
see,  bent  double  with  rheumatism,  is  living  upon  parish 
allowance,  and  scarcely  able  to  crawl  from  pillar  to  post. 


300  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  Off  with  your  liat  when  you  meet  a  gentleman. 
What  does  it  cost?  Gentlemen  notice  these  things, 
are  offended  if  the  civility  is  not  paid,  and  pleased  if 
it  is ;  and  what  harm  does  it  do  you  ?  When  first  I 
came  to  this  parish,  Squire  Tempest  wanted  a  postillion. 
John  Barton  was  a  good,  civil  fellow ;  and  in  thinking 
over  the  names  of  the  village,  the  Squire  thought  of 
Barton,  remembered  his  constant  civility,  sent  for  one 
of  his  sons,  made  him  postillion,  then  coachman,  then 
bailiff,  and  he  now  holds  a  farm  under  the  Squire  of 
£500  per  annum.  Such  things  are  constantly  happen 
ing. 

"  I  will  have  no  swearing.  '  There  is  pleasure  in  a 
pint  of  ale,  but  what  pleasure  is  there  in  an  oath  ?  A 
swearer  is  a  low,  vulgar  person.  Swearing  is  fit  for  a 
tinker  or  a  razor-grinder,  not  for  an  honest  laborer  in 
my  parish. 

"  I  must  positively  forbid  all  poaching ;  it  is  absolute 
ruin  to  yourself  and  your  family.  In  the  end  you  are 
sure  to  be  detected — a  hare  in  one  pocket  and  a  pheas 
ant  in  the  other.  How  are  you  to  pay  ten  pounds  ? 
You  have  not  tenpence  beforehand  in  the  world.  Dan 
iel's  breeches  are  unpaid  for ;  you  have  a  hole  in  your 
hat,  and  want  a  new  one ;  your  wife,  an  excellent  wo 
man,  is  about  to  lie  in — and  you  are,  all  of  a  sudden, 
called  upon  by  the  Justice  to  pay  ten  pounds.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  sight  of  poor  Cranford,  hurried  to  Taun- 
ton  Jail ;  a  wife  and  three  daughters  on  their  knees  to 
the  Justice,  who  was  compelled  to  do  his  duty,  and  com 
mit  him.  The  next  day,  beds,  chairs,  and  clothes  sold, 
to  get  the  father  out  of  jail.  Out  of  jail  he  came  ;  but 
the  poor  fellow  could  not  bear  the  sight  of  his  naked 
cottage,  and  to  see  his  family  pinched  with  hunger. 
You  know  how  he  ended  his  days.  Was  there  a  dry 
eye  in  the  church-yard  when  he  was  buried  ?  It  was  a 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  301 

lesson  to  poachers.  It  is  indeed  a  desperate  and  fool 
ish  trade.  Observe,  I  am  not  defending  the  game-laws, 
but  I  am  advising  you,  as  long  as  the  game-laws  exist, 
to  fear  them,  and  to  take  care  that  you  and  your  fami 
ly  are  not  crushed  by  them.  And  then,  smart,  stout 
young  men  hate  the  game-keeper,  and  make  it  a  point 
of  courage  and  spirit  to  oppose  him.  Why  ?  The 
game-keeper  is  paid  to  protect  the  game,  and  he  would 
be  a  very  dishonest  man  if  he  did  not  do  his  duty. 
What  right  have  you  to  bear  malice  against  him  for 
this  ?  After  all,  the  game  in  justice  belongs  to  the 
land-owners,  who  feed  it ;  and  not  to  you,  who  have  no 
land  at  all,  and  can  feed  nothing. 

"I  don't  like  that  red  nose,  and  those  blear  eyes, 
and  that  stupid,  downcast  look.  You  are  a  drunkard. 
Another  pint,  and  one  pint  more ;  a  glass  of  gin  and 
water,  rum  and  milk,  cider  and  pepper,  a  glass  of  pep 
permint,  and  all  the  beastly  fluids  which  drunkards  pour 
down  their  throats.  It  is  very  possible  to  conquer  it, 
if  you  will  but  be  resolute.  I  remember  a  man  in  Staf 
fordshire  who  was  drunk  every  day  of  his  life.  Every 
farthing  he  earned  went  to  the  ale-house.  One  evening 
he  staggered  home,  and  found  at  a  late  hour  his  wife 
sitting  alone,  and  drowned  in  tears.  He  was  a  man 
not  deficient  in  natural  affections ;  he  appeared  to  be 
struck  with  the  wretchedness  of  the  woman,  and  with 
some  eagerness  asked  her  why  she  was  crying.  '  I  don't 
like  to  tell  you,  James,'  she  said,  '  but  if  I  must,  I  must ; 
and  truth  is,  my  children  have  not  touched  a  morsel  of 
any  thing  this  blessed  day.  As  for  me,  never  mind  me ; 
I  must  leave  you  to  guess  how  it  has  fared  with  me. 
But  not  one  morsel  of  food  could  I  beg  or  buy  for  those 
children  that  lie  on  that  bed  before  you ;  and  I  am  sure, 
James,  it  is  better  for  us  all  we  should  die,  and  to  my 
soul  T  wish  we  were  dead.'  'Dead!'  said  James,  start- 


302  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

ing  tip  as  if  a  flash  of  lightning  had  darted  upon  him ; 
'  dead,  Sally !  You,  and  Mary,  and  the  two  young 
ones  dead  ?  Look  ye,  my  lass,  you  see  what  I  am  now 
— like  a  brute.  I  have  wasted  your  substance — the 
curse  of  God  is  upon  me — 1  am  drawing  near  to  the  pit 
of  destruction — but  there's  an  end;  I  feel  there's  an 
end.  Give  me  that  glass,  wife.'  She  gave  it  him  with 
astonishment  and  fear.  He  turned  it  topsy-turvy  ;  and, 
striking  the  table  with  great  violence,  and  flinging  him 
self  on  his  knees,  made  a  most  solemn  and  affecting  vow 
to  God  of  repentance  and  sobriety.  From  that  moment 
to  the  day  of  his  death  he  drank  no  fermented  liquor, 
but  confined  himself  entirely  to  tea  and  water.*  I  nev 
er  saw  so  sudden  and  astonishing  a  change.  His  looks 
became  healthy,  his  cottage  neat,  his  children  were  clad, 
his  wife  was  happy ;  and  twenty  times  the  poor  man 
and  his  wife,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  have  told  me  the 
story,  and  blessed  the  evening  of  the  fourteenth  of  March, 
the  day  of  James's  restoration,  and  have  shown  me  the 
glass  he  held  in  his  hand  when  he  made  the  vow  of  so 
briety.  It  is  all  nonsense  about  not  being  able  to  work 
without  ale,  and  gin,  and  cider,  and  fermented  liquors. 
Do  lions  and  cart-horses  drink  ale  ?  It  is  mere  habit. 
If  you  have  good  nourishing  food,  you  can  do  very  well 
without  ale.  Nobody  works  harder  than  the  Yorkshire 
people,  and  for  years  together  there  are  many  Yorkshire 
laborers  who  never  taste  ale.  I  have  no  objection,  you 
will  observe,  to  a  moderate  use  of  ale,  or  any  other  liq 
uor  you  can  afford  to  purchase.  My  objection  is,  that 
you  can  not  afford  it ;  that  every  penny  you  spend  at 
the  ale-house  comes  out  of  the  stomachs  of  the  poor 
children,  and  strips  off  the  clothes  of  the  wife. 

"  My  dear  little  Nanny,  don't  believe  a  word  he  says. 
He  merely  means  to  ruin  and  deceive  you.     You  have 

*  A  fact. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  8o;t 

a  plain  answer  to  give :  '  "When  I  am  axed  in  the  church, 
and  the  parson  has  read  the  service,  and  all  about  it  is 
written  down  in  the  book,  then  I  will  listen  to  your  non 
sense,  and  not  before.'  Am  not  I  a  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  and  have  not  I  had  a  hundred  foolish  girls  brought 
before  me,  who  have  all  come  with  the  same  story  ? 
'  Please,  your  Worship,  he  is  a  false  man ;  he  promised 
me  marriage  over  and  over  again.'  I  confess  I  have  often 
wished  for  the  power  of  hanging  these  rural  lovers. 
But  what  use  is  my  wishing?  All  that  can  be  done 
with  the  villain  is  to  make  him  pay  half  a  crown  a  week, 
and  you  are  handed  over  to  the  poor-house,  and  to  in 
famy.  Will  no  example  teach  you?  Look  to  Mary 
Willct — three  years  ago  the  handsomest  and  best  girl 
in  the  village,  now  a  slattern  in  the  poor-house !  Look 
at  Harriet  Dobson,  who  trusted  in  the  promises  of  James 
Harefield's  son,  and,  after  being  abandoned  by  him,  went 
away  in  despair  with  a  party  of  soldiers  !  How  can  you 
be  such  a  fool  as  to  surrender  your  character  to  the  stu 
pid  flattery  of  a  plowboy  ?  If  the  evening  is  pleasant, 
and  birds  sing,  and  flowers  bloom,  is  that  any  reason 
why  you  are  to  forget  God's  Word,  the  happiness  of  your 
family,  and  your  own  character?  What  is  a  woman 
worth  without  character?  A  profligate  carpenter,  or  a 
debauched  watchmaker,  may  gain  business  from  their 
skill ;  but  how  is  a  profligate  woman  to  gain  her  bread  V 
Who  will  receive  her?'1'' 

"But  this  is  enough  of  my  parish  advice." 
"Have  you  observed  that  nothing  can  be  done  in 
England  without  a  dinner?  When  first  I  came  to 
Bristol,  I  found  it  was  dinner  all  the  day.  Not  the 
appetite  of  an  alderman  could  have  got  through  them, 
or  the  stomach  of  an  ostrich  digested  them.  I  exam 
ined  into  their  objects,  and  found  the  expenses  of  the 
o-reator  part  exceeded  the  sum  collected  for  the  charities 


304  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

for  whose  benefit  we  dined.  All  such  I  refused  to  dine 
at,  or  subscribe  to,  and  I  dare  say  was  considered  a 
monster  in  consequence.  However,  it  is  quite  true  what 
Frere  says  :  '  An  Englishman  opens,  like  an  oyster,  with 
a  knife  and  fork  ;  one  never  knows  what  is  in  a  man  till 
these  two  agents  are  in  active  employment.' 

"When  I  hear  the  rustics  yawn  audibly  at  my  ser 
mons,  it  reminds  me  of  Lord  Ellenborough,  who,  on 

seeing  Lord gaPe  during  his  own  long  and  dull 

speech,  said,  '  Well,  I  must  own  there  is  some  taste  in 
that,  but  is  not  Lord  —  -  rather  encroaching  on  our 
privileges  ?' 

"  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  peasantry  in  England 
apply  the  masculine  and  feminine  gender  to  things,  like 
the  French.  My  schoolmistress  here,  a  very  respecta 
ble  young  woman,  hurt  her  leg.  I  inquired  how  she 
was,  the  other  day ;  she  answered,  '  He  was  very  bad ; 
he  gave  her  a  deal  of  trouble  at  night.'  I  inquired  who, 
in  some  surprise  ;  and  found  it  was  her  leg.  If  I  com 
plain  of  want  of  punctuality,  the  servants  say,  *  'Tis  long 
of  the  clock,  sir.  She  lias  gone  quite  wrong ;  she's  al 
ways  going  wrong.' 

"Some  of  the  words  used  by  the  peasantry  are  very 
expressive  :  insense,  for  example,  is  to  get  the  sense  into 
a  man.  'Well,  John,'  I  sometimes  say,  'have  you  in- 
sensed  that  man  ?'  '  Yes,  your  honor  ;  and  he  teld  me 
he  could  na  understand  your  honor  na  more  than  if  ye 
were  a  Frenchman.' " 

Some  one  mentioned  that  a  young  Scotchman,  who 
had  been  lately  in  the  neighborhood,  was  about  to 
marry  an  Irish  widow,  double  his  age  and  of  consider 
able  dimensions.  "Going  to  marry  her!"  he  exclaim 
ed,  bursting  out  laughing;  "going  to  marry  her!  im 
possible  !  you  mean,  a  part  of  her :  he  could  not  marry 
her  all  himself.  It  would  be  a  case,  not  of  bigamy,  but 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  305 

trigamy;  the  neighborhood  or  the  magistrates  should 
interfere.  There  is  enough  of  her  to  furnish  wives  for 
a  whole  parish.  One  man  many  her !  it  is  monstrous. 
You  might  people  a  colony  with  her ;  or  give  an  assem 
bly  with  her ;  or  perhaps  take  your  morning's  walk 
round  her,  always  provided  there  were  frequent  resting- 
places,  and  you  were  in  rude  health.  I  once  was  rash 
enough  to  try  walking  round  her  before  breakfast,  but 
only  got  half-way  and  gave  it  up  exhausted.  Or  you 
might  read  the  Eiot  Act  and  disperse  her ;  in  short,  you 
might  do  any  thing  with  her  but  marry  her."  "Oh, 
Mr.  Sydney!"  said  a  yaung  lady,  recovering  from  the 
general  laugh,  "  did  you  make  all  that  yourself?"  "  Yes, 
Lucy,"  throwing  himself  back  in  his  chair  and  shaking 
with  laughter,  "  all  myself,  child ;  all  my  own  thunder. 
Do  you  think,  when  I  am  about  to  make  a  joke,  I  send 
for  my  neighbors  C.  and  G.,  or  consult  the  clerk  and 
church- wardens  upon  it  ?  But  let  us  go  into  the  gar 
den  ;"  and,  all  laughing  till  we  cried,  without  hats  or 
bonnets,  we  sallied  forth  out  of  his  glorified  window  into 
the  garden. 

Opposite  was  a  beautiful  bank  with  a  hanging  wood 
of  fine  old  beech  and  oak,  on  the  summit  of  which  pre 
sented  themselves,  to  our  astonished  eyes,  two  don 
keys,  with  deer's  antlers  fastened  on  their  heads,  which 
ever  and  anon  they  shook,  much  wondering  at  their 
horned  honors ;  while  their  attendant  donkey-boy,  in 
Sunday  garb,  stood  grinning  and  blushing  at  their 
side.  "There,  Lady-  — !  you  said  the  only  thing 
this  place  wanted  to  make  it  perfect  was  deer ;  what 
do  you  say  now  ?  I  have,  you  see,  ordered  my  game 
keeper  to  drive  my  deer  into  the  most  picturesque 
point  of  view.  Excuse  their  long  ears,  a  little  peculiar 
ity  belonging  to  parsonic  deer.  Their  voices,  too,  are 
singular ;  but  we  do  our  best  for  you,  and  you  are  too 


300  MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

true  a  friend  of  the  Church  to  mention  our  defects." 
All  this,  of  course,  amidst  shouts  of  laughter,  while  his 
own  merry  laugh  might  Ibe  heard  above  us  all,  ringing 
through  the  valley,  and  making  the  very  echoes  laugh 
in  chorus. 

Then  wandering  on  a  little  further,  his  black  crutch- 
stick  in  his  hand,  and  his  white  hairs  blown  about  by 
the  soft  Somersetshire  wind:  "It  must  be  admitted," 
said  he,  "if  the  mind  vegetates,  the  body  rejoices,  in 
the  country.  What  an  air  this  is !  Our  climate  is  so 
mild,  that  myrtles  and  geraniums  stand  out  all  the 
winter ;  and  the  effects  of  it  on  the  human  constitution 

are  such,  that  Lady ,  a  model  of  female  virtue, 

who  never  gave  that  excellent  baronet,  her  husband,  a 
moment's  anxiety,  declared  to  me  with  a  deep  sigh, 
after  a  week's  residence  here,  that  she  must  go,  for  she 
felt  all  her  principles  melting  away  under  its  influence. 
Some  of  my  Scotch  friends,  it  is  true,  complain  that  it 
is  too  enervating ;  but  they  are  but  northern  barbarians, 
after  all,  and  like  to  breathe  their  air  raw.  We  civilized 
people  of  the  south  prefer  it  cooked." 

On  observing  some  of  the  autumn  crocus  in  flower, 
he  stopped:  "There!"  he  said,  "who  would  guess  the 
virtue  of  that  little  plant  ?  But  I  find  the  power  of 
colchicum  so  great,  that  if  I  feel  a  little  gout  coming  on, 
I  go  into  the  garden,  and  hold  out  my  toe  to  that  plant, 
and  it  gets  well  directly.  I  never  do  more  without  orders 
from  head-quarters.  Oh !  wrhen  I  have  the  gout,  I  feel 
as  if  I  was  walking  oil  my  eyeballs." 

Going  a  few  steps  further:  "There,  now  lift  your 
eyes,  and  tell  me  where  another  parsonage-house  in 
England  has  such  a  view  as  that  to  boast  of.  What 
can  Pall  Mall  or  Piccadilly  produce  to  rival  it  ?  The 
church,  too,  which  you  see ;  it  must  be  a  satisfaction 
to  your  ladyship  to  find  yourself  so  near  the  church. 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  307 

When  first  I  came  here,  all  that  view  was  shut  out  by 
trees.  I  saw  at  one  glance  what  was  to  Tbe  done.  I 
called  for  Jack  Spratt,  my  carpenter,  and  his  hatchet. 
Saba  was  in  tears,  Mrs.  Sydney  in  hysterics,  all  the 
family  in  despair ;  but  I  hardened  my  heart,  Jack 
Spratt  cut  vigorously,  at  every  stroke  the  view  became 
more  lovely,  and  now  the  whole  family  are  converts  and 
deny  the  tears." 

"Did  you  say  a  Quaker  baby?  Impossible!  there 
is  no  such  thing ;  there  never  was  ;  they  are  always 
born  broad-brimmed  and  in  full  quake.  .  .  .  Well,  all 
I  can  say  is,  I  never  saw  one ;  and  what  is  still  more 
remarkable,  I  never  met  with  any  one  who  had.  Do 
you  believe  in  it  ?  Lady  Morley  does  not.  Have  you 
heard  the  report  that  they  arc  fed  on  drab-colored  pap  ? 
It  must  be  this  that  gives  them  their  beautiful  complex 
ion.  I  have  a  theory  about  them  and  bluecoat  boys, 
which  I  will  tell  you  some  day." 

"Yes,  it  requires  a  long  apprenticeship  to  speak  well 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  It  is  the  most  formidable 
ordeal  in  the  world.  Few  men  have  succeeded  who  en 
tered  it  late  in  life ;  Jeffrey  is  perhaps  the  best  excep 
tion.  Bobus  used  to  say  that  there  was  more  sense 
and  good  taste  in  the  whole  House,  than  in  any  one 
individual  of  w^hich  it  was  composed." 

"  We  are  told,  '  Let  not  the  sun  go  down  on  your 
wrath.'  This,  of  course,  is  best ;  but,  as  it  generally 
does,  1  would  add,  Never  act  or  write  till  it  has  done  so. 
This  rule  has  saved  me  from  many  an  act  of  folly.  It  is 
wonderful  what  a  different  view  we  take  of  the  same 
event  four-and-twenty  hours  after  it  has  happened." 

"  Yes,  I  think  the  Duke  of-  -  wore  his  rank  most 
gracefully.  I  have  heard  that  lie  was  once  mounting 
his  horse,  in  company  with  the  Archbishop  of  York, 
and  desired  the  groom  to  let  go  the  roin.  The  groom 


308  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

stupidly  retained  it.  The  nobleman  snatched  it  with 
some  violence,  and,  riding  off,  called  him  a  fool.  He 
had  hardly  proceeded  a  hundred  yards,  when  he  stopped, 
saying,  '  Why  did  I  call  that  man  a  fool  ?  I  dare  say 
he  is  not  so  great  a  fool  as  I  am.'  He  instantly  turned 
his  horse,  galloped  after  the  man,  arid  made  his  peace 
with  a  kind  word  and  half  a  crown." 

This  pretty  trait  reminds  me  of  what  I  have  not 
unfrequently  seen  in  my  father,  and  think  I  may  men 
tion  here ;  for  though  it  is  not  the  part  of  a  daughter  to 
reveal  faults,  yet  a  fault  nobly  repaired  or  repented  of, 
adds  to  the  respect  and  interest  which  a  character  in 
spires.  My  father  was  by  nature  quick  and  hasty,  yet 
he  always  struggled  against  it ;  made  many  regulations 
to  avoid  exciting  such  feelings ;  and  when  he  did  give 
way,  it  often  excited  my  admiration  to  see  him  gradu 
ally  subduing  his  chafed  spirit,  and  to  observe  his  dis 
satisfaction  with  himself  till  he  had  humbled  himself 
and  made  peace,  it  mattered  not  with  whom,  groom  or 
child.  He  could  not  bear  the  reproaches  of  his  own 
heart. 

"In  this  hard,  rough,  every-day  working  world,  the 
object  of  education  should  not  be,  as  it  so  often  is,  to 
excite  and  sharpen  the  acute  feelings  of  a  young  person, 
but  to  calm  and  blunt  them ;  preserving  only  those 
warm  and  generous  feelings  which  give  strength  and 
courage  to  perform  the  great  duties  of  life." 

"  Once,  when  talking  with  Lord  —  -  on  the  subject 
of  Bible  names,  I  could  not  remember  the  name  of  one 
of  Job's  daughters.  'Kezia,'  said  he  immediately. 
Surprised,  I  congratulated  him  upon  being  so  well  read 
in  Bible  lore.  4Oh!'  said  he,  'my  three  greyhounds 
are  named  after  Job's  daughters.' " 

"Ah!"  said  my  father,  on  taking  us  round  his  farm, 
"  you  will  find  it  is  a  formidable  undertaking  to  visit 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  309 

an  improver ;  we  spare  you  nothing,  from  the  garret 
to  the  pig-sty.  It  is  like  a  Frenchman's  explanation; 
they  never  give  you  credit  for  knowing  the  common 
est  facts.  C'est  toujours,  '  Commengons  au  deluge.' 
My  heart  sinks  when  a  Frenchman  begins,  '  Mon  ami, 
je  vais  vous  expliquer  tout  cela.'  A  fellow-traveler 
once  explained  to  me  how  to  cut  a  sandwich,  all  the 
way  from  Amiens  to  Paris." 

"Yes,  he  was  a  clever  and  liberal  man,  but  his  wife 
was  a  much  more  remarkable  woman ;  she  had  a  truly 
porcelain  understanding." 

"True,  it  is  most  painful  not  to  meet  the  kindness 
and  affection  you  feel  you  have  deserved  and  have  a 
right  to  expect  from  others ;  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  com 
plain  of  it,  for  it  is  of  no  use :  you  can  not  extort  friend 
ship  with  a  cocked  pistol." 

On  some  one  of  his  guests  lamenting  they  had  left 
something  behind:  "Ah!"  he  said,  "that  would  not 
have  happened  if  you  had  had  a  screaming  gate."  "  A 
screaming  gate  ?  what  do  you  mean,  Mr.  Smith  ?" 
"Yes,  every  body  should  have  a  screaming  gate.  We 
all  arrived  once  at  a  friend's  house  just  before  dinner, 
hot,  tired,  and  dusty — a  large  party  assembled — and 
found  all  the  keys  of  our  trunks  had  been  left  behind ; 
since  then  I  have  established  a  screaming  gate.  We 
never  set  out  on  our  journey  now  without  stopping  at 
a  gate  about  ten  minutes'  distance  from  the  house,  to 
consider  what  we  have  left  behind :  the  result  has  been 
excellent." 

"Nothing  is  so  tiresome  to  me  as  a  person  who  is 
always  talking  Phoebuses ;  I  prefer  plain  honest  dull 
ness  a  thousand  times." 

"  Cultivate  the  love  of  reading  in  a  young  person ; 
it  is  an  unceasing  source  of  pleasure,  and  probably  of 


310  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  Yes,  it  was  a  mistake  to  write  any  more.  He  was 
a  one-book  man.  Some  men  have  only  one  book  in 
them  ;  others,  a  library." 

"I  believe  one  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  earliest 
victories  was  at  Eton,  over  my  eldest  brother,  Bobus. 
I  have  heard  that  the  Duke  reminded  him  of  it  on  see 
ing  him  accidentally  in  society  many  years  after  the 
Spanish  campaigns." 

On  meeting  a  young  lady  who  had  just  entered  the 
garden,  and  shaking  hands  with  her:  "I  must,"  he 
said,  "give  you  a  lesson  in  shaking  hands,  I  see. 
There  is  nothing  more  characteristic  than  shakes  of 
the  hand.  I  have  classified  them.  Lister,  when  he 
was  here,  illustrated  some  of  them.  Ask  Mrs.  Sydney 
to  show  you  his  sketches  of  them  when  you  go  in. 
There  is  the  high  official — the  body  erect,  and  a  rapid, 
short  shake,  near  the  chin.  There  is  the  mortmain— 
the  flat  hand  introduced  into  your  palm,  and  hardly 
conscious  of  its  contiguity.  The  digital — one  finger 
held  out,  much  used  by  the  high  clergy.  There  is  the 
shaJcus  rusticus,  where  your  hand  is  seized  in  an  iron 
grasp,  betokening  rude  health,  warm  heart,  and  distance 
from  the  Metropolis ;  but  producing  a  strong  sense  of 
relief  on  your  part  when  you  find  your  hand  released 
and  your  fingers  unbroken.  The  next  to  this  is  the 
retentive  shake — one  which,  beginning  with  vigor,  pauses 
as  it  were  to  take  breath,  but  without  relinquishing  its 
prey,  and  before  you  are  aware  begins  again,  till  you 
feel  anxious  as  to  the  result,  and  have  no  shake  left  in 
you.  There  are  other  varieties,  but  this  is  enough  for 
one  lesson." 

On  examining  some  new  flowers  in  the  garden,  a 
beautiful  girl,  who  was  of  the  party,  exclaimed,  "Oh, 
Mr.  Sydney!  this  pea  will  never  come  to  perfection." 
"Permit  me,  then,"  said  he,  gently  taking  her  hand 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   KEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  311 

and  walking  toward  the  plant,  "to  lead  perfection  to 
the  pea." 

"  I  think  an  office  for  marriage  would  be  a  very  good 
thing.  I  am  sure  I  could  marry  people  much  better 
than  they  marry  themselves ;  young  people  are  so  ab 
surd,  and  accept  and  refuse  for  such  foolish  reasons.  I 
wish,  Miss  -  — ,  you  would  employ  me ;  I  have  suc 
ceeded  admirably  already  on  two  occasions :  will  you 
take  my  advice?"  " Oh  yes,  Mr.  Sydney."  "Well, 
then,  we  will  have  a  little  private  conversation,  and 
consider  your  case ;  but  now  I  must  go  and  look  after 
my  parish." 

"After  luncheon  may  I  have  the  honor  of  driving 
you  round  my  wood  ?"  (addressing  one  of  the  ladies.) 
"David,  bring  me  my  hat."  And  with  his  crutch- 
stick  in  his  hand,  he  sallied  forth  into  his  parish,  where 
he  always  seemed  to  carry  comfort  and  pleasure  into 
every  cottage  he  entered,  for  he  brought  what  the  poor 
value  so  highly,  and  so  seldom  obtain — sympathy. 
He  appeared,  and  was,  interested  in  their  concerns. 
When  he  sat  down  in  a  cottage,  nothing  escaped  his 
eye:  Solomon's  Temple  in  rockwork — the  Prodigal  Son 
on  the  wall — the  old  woman  in  the  ingle-nook — the 
dirty,  rosy  infant  on  the  floor,  all  came  in  for  a  share  of 
his  notice. 

"  Why,  John,  I  took  you  for  a  general  officer  at  least, 
in  that  new  red  waistcoat ;  but,  John,  I  think  there  is 
a  touch  of  pride  in  those  brass  buttons,  don't  you?" 
"Na,  your  honor,  there  beant,"  said  John,  highly  grati 
fied,  and  grinning  from  car  to  ear.  "Well,  and  how  do 
you  do?"  to  the  old  woman.  "Oh!  the  stuff  your 
honor  sent  did  me  a  world  of  good."  "Ah,  I  thought 
it  would  reach  the  right  spot.  Dame ;  well,  then,  you 
must  send  the  bottle  for  some  more." 


312  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH. 

"At  this  time,"  writes  Mrs.  Marcet,  "he  was  in  the 
habit  of  spending  half  an  hour  every  morning  with  a 
young  workman  who  was  in  the  last  stage  of  consump 
tion ;  'part  of  that  time,'  he  said,  'was  spent  in  pre 
paring  him  for  another  world,  and  part  in  endeavoring 
to  render  his  last  days  in  this  as  cheerful  and  as  happy 
as  he  could.'  He  used  to  stop  and  talk  to  the  children 
of  the  village  as  he  passed  along  the  road.  He  always 
kept  a  box  of  sugar-plums  in  his  pocket  for  these  occa 
sions,  and  often  some  rosy-faced  urchin  was  made  happy 
by  sharing  its  contents,  or  obtaining  a  penny  to  buy  a 
tart.  'Let  it  be  large  and  full  of  juice,  Johnny,'  he 
would  say,  '  so  that  it  may  run  down  both  corners  of  the 
mouth.'  Stopping  another:  'What  do  you  call  me? 
who  am  I?'  'Why,  we  calls  you  the  Parson  Doctor.' 
'  Oh,  you  little  rogue !'  pinching  his  cheek  smilingly,  and 
holding  up  his  fist  at  him,  '  I  will  send  you  a  dose  when 
I  go  home.' 

"At  last  he  returned,  and  presently  might  be  heard 
the  cry  of  'Jack  Spratt!' — a  few  minutes  after,  'Betty 
Loch!'  (the  garden- woman) ;  then  'Bunch!7  (now  con 
verted  into  a  cook);  then  'Annie  Kay!'  Shortly  after 
he  would  come  up  into  the  drawing-room  with  a  large 
manuscript  book  in  his  hand,  and,  seating  himself  in  an 
arm-chair,  look  round  upon  us.  'What  are  you  read 
ing?'  'The  Life  of  Franklin.'  'Oh,  that  is  right.  I 
recommend  the  study  of  Franklin  to  all  young  people ; 
he  was  a  real  philanthropist,  a  wonderful  man.  It  has 
been  said,  that  it  was  honor  enough  to  any  one  country 
to  have  produced  such  a  man  as  Franklin.  I  think  all 
young  people  should  read  the  Spectator,  too — a  paper  a 
day  ;  I  always  did.' 

"On  Miss ,  and  her  friend  Dr.  's  daughter 

passing  through  the  room,  some  one  remarked  what  a 
pretty  contrast   their  different   styles  of  beauty  made. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  313 

'Yes,'  lie  said,  'Miss  -  -  reminds  me  of  a  youthful 
Minerva;  and  her  friend,  as  Dr.  -  — 's  daughter,  must 
be,  you  know,  the  Venus  de  Medicis.' 

"Talking  of  Switzerland:  'Well,  what  are  they  do 
ing  now  in  the  irritable  little  republic?  They  say  a 
change  in  the  hour  of  shutting  the  gates  convulsed  the 
whole  canton  of  Geneva.  Have  they  deposed  M — 
yet  ?  You  remember  -  — 's  answer  when  they  sent 
him  a  decree  that  he  could  not  be  permitted  to  fire  in 
the  republic?  "Very  well,"  said  he,  "it  makes  no  sort 
of  difference  to  me ;  I  can  very  easily  fire  over  the  re 
public.'" 

"Some  one  mentioning  a  marriage  about  to  take 
place :  '  Why,  it  is  like  the  union  of  an  acid  and  an  al 
kali ;  the  result  must  be  a  tertium  quid,  or  neutral 
salt.' 

'"What  a  beautiful  thought  (reading  from  a  book  in 
his  hand):  a  sunbeam  passes  through  pollution  unpol 
luted.' 

"'Ah!  what  female  heart  can  withstand  a  red-coat? 
I  think  this  should  be  a  part  of  female  education ;  it  is 
much  neglected.  As  you  have  the  rocking-horse  to  ac 
custom  them  to  ride,  I  would  have  military  dolls  in  the 
nursery,  to  harden  their  hearts  against  officers  and  red 
coats.  I  found  myself  in  company  with  some  officers  at 
the  country-house  of  a  friend  once;  and  as  the  repast 
advanced,  the  colonel  became  very  eloquent,  and  com 
municated  to  us  a  military  definition  of  vice  and  virtue. 
"Vice, "he  said,  "was  a  d — d  cocked-tailed  fellow;  and 
Virtue,"  said  he  (striking  the  table  with  his  fist,  to  en 
force  the  description),  "was  a  fellow  fenced  about  for 
the  good  of  the  service."  We  all  burst  into  such  an 
uncontrollable  paroxysm  of  laughter,  that  I  began  to 
fear  the  honest  colonel  might  think  it  for  the  good  of  the 
service  to  shoot  us  through  the  head ;  so,  for  the  good  of 
VOL.  I,— 0 


314  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

the  Church,  hastened  to  agree  with  him,  and  we  parted 
very  good  friends.' 

"'Yes,  Mr. has  great  good  sense,  but  I  never 

met  a  manner  more  entirely  without  frill.' 

"Talking  of  Lord  Denman:  'What  a  face  he  has! 
how  well  he  looks  his  part !  He  is  stamped  by  nature 
for  a  Chief  Justice.  He  is  an  honorable,  high-minded 
man.  I  have  a  great  respect  for  him.' 

"  'I  will  explain  to  you,'  said  Mr.  D .  'Oh,  pray 

don't,  my  dear  D ,' said  Sydney  laughing;  'I  did 

understand  a  little  about  the  Scotch  kirk  before  you  un 
dertook  to  explain  it  to  me  yesterday ;  but  now  my 
mind  is  like  a  London  fog  on  the  subject.' 

"  'But  I  came  up  to  speak  to  Annie  Kay.  Where  is 
Annie  Kay?  King  the  bell  for  Annie  Kay.'  Kay  ap 
peared.  '  Bring  me  my  medicine-book,  Annie  Kay.  Kay 
is  my  apothecary's  boy,  and  makes  up  my  medicines.' 
Kay  appears  with  the  book.  '  I  am  a  great  doctor ; 
would  you  like  to  hear  some  of  my  medicines  ?'  '  Oh 
yes,  Mr.  Sydney.'  'There  is  the  gentlejog,  a  pleasure 
to  take  it — the  Bull-dog,  for  more  serious  cases — Peter's 
puke — Heart's  delight,  the  comfort  of  all  the  old  women 
in  the  village — Rub-a-dub,  a  capital  embrocation — Dead- 
stop,  settles  the  matter  at  once — Up-with-it-then  needs 
no  explanation ;  and  so  on.  Now,  Annie  Kay,  give  Mrs. 
Spratt  a  bottle  of  Rub-a-dub ;  and  to  Mr.  Coles  a  dose 
of  Dead-stop  and  twenty  drops  of  laudanum.' 

'"This  is  the  house  to  be  ill  in'  (turning  to  us);  'in 
deed  every  body  who  comes  is  expected  to  take  a  little 
something ;  I  consider  it  a  delicate  compliment  when  my 
guests  have  a  slight  illness  here.  We  have  contrivances 
for  every  thing.  Have  you  seen  my  patent  armor? 
No?  Annie  Kay  bring  my  patent  armor.  Now,  look 
here :  if  you  have  a  stiff  neck  or  swelled  face,  here  is  this 
sweet  case  of  tin  filled  with  hot  water,  and  covered  with 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  315 

flannel,  to  put  round  your  neck,  and  you  are  well  direct 
ly.  Likewise,  a  patent  tin  shoulder,  in  case  of  rheuma 
tism.  There  you  see  a  stomach-tin,  the  greatest  comfort 
in  life ;  and  lastly,  here  is  a  tin  slipper,  to  be  filled  with 
hot  water,  which  you  can  sit  with  in  the  drawing-room, 
should  you  come  in  chilled,  without  wetting  your  feet. 
Come  and  see  my  apothecary's  shop." 

"We  all  went  down  stairs,  and  entered  a  room  filled 
entirely  on  one  side  with  medicines,  and  on  the  other 
with  every  description  of  groceries  and  household  or 
agricultural  necessaries ;  in  the  centre,  a  large  chest, 
forming  a  table,  and  divided  into  compartments  for  soap, 
candles,  salt,  and  sugar. 

"'Here  you  see,'  said  he,  'every  human  want  before 
you: 

*  Man  wants  but  little  here  below, 
As  beef,  veal,  mutton,  pork,  lamb,  venison  show  ;' 

spreading  out  his  arms  to  exhibit  every  thing,  and  laugh 
ing.      4  Life  is  a  difficult  thing  in  the  country,  I  assure 
you,  and  it  requires  a  good  deal  of  forethought  to  steer 
the  ship,  when  you  live  twelve  miles  from  a  lemon. 
"  '  By-the-by,  that  reminds  me  of  one  of  our  greatest 

domestic  triumphs.      Some  years  ago  my  friend  C , 

the  arch  epicure  of  the  Northern  Circuit,  was  dining  with 
me  in  the  country.  On  sitting  down  to  dinner,  he  turn 
ed  round  to  the  servant,  and  desired  him  to  look  in  his 
great-coat  pocket  and  he  would  find  a  lemon;  "For," 
he  said,  "  I  thought  it  likely  you  might  have  duck  and 
green-peas  for  dinner,  and  therefore  thought  it  prudent, 
at  this  distance  from  a  town,  to  provide  a  lemon."  I 
turned  round,  and  exclaimed,  indignantly,  "Bunch,  bring 
in  the  lemon-bag ! "  and  Bunch  appeared  with  a  bag  con 
taining  a  dozen  lemons.  He  respected  us  wonderfully 
after  that.  Oh,  it  is  reported  that  he  goes  to  bed  with 
concentrated  lozenges  of  wild-duck,  so  as  to  have  the 


316  MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

taste  constantly  in  his  mouth  when  he  wakes  in  the 
night.' 

"  'Look  here,  this  is  a  stomach-pump;  you  can't  die 
here.  Bobus  roared  with  laughter  when  I  showed  it  to 
him,  but  I  saved  my  footman's  life  by  it.*  He  swallow 
ed  as  much  arsenic  as  would  have  poisoned  all  the  rats 
in  the  House  of  Lords ;  but  I  pumped  lime-water  into 
him  night  and  day  for  many  hours  at  a  time,  and  there 
he  is.  This  is  my  medical  department.  Saba  used  to 
be  my  apothecary's  boy  before  Dr.  Holland  carried  her 
off;  Annie  Kay  is  now  promoted  to  it.' 

"We  spent  some  time  in  examining  the  wonders  of 
the  shop,  as  he  called  it ;  he  showing  us  all  sorts  of  con 
trivances  and  comforts  for  both  rich  and  poor  ;  and,  in 
doing  so,  exhibiting  at  the  same  time  that  mixture  of 
sense,  nonsense,  forethought,  and  gayety  so  peculiar  to 
himself,  and  which  gave  a  charm  even  to  the  details  of  a 
grocer's  shop.  We  then  returned  to  the  drawing-room : 
in  a  short  time  he  followed  us  up,  with  another  book  in 
his  hand.  '  Mrs.  Sydney,  I  find  the  cook  wants  yeast 
and  eggs.'  '  Yes,  she  has  not  been  able  to  get  any.' 
4  Why  did  you  not  write  it  down  in  my  book,  then  ?  I 
always  tell  Mrs.  Sydney,  when  she  wants  any  thing,  to 
write  it  down  in  my  book ;  once  down  in  my  book,  and 

*  Literally  true.  The  man  had  a  passion  for  dough,  and,  returning 
hungry  one  night,  found  a  lump  of  dough  which  had  been  prepared  with 
arsenic  for  the  rats,  left  most  improperly  by  the  gardener  on  the  kitchen 
dresser ;  and,  indulging  his  passion,  he  devoured  a  considerable  quantity 
of  it.  The  punishment  was  speedy ;  my  father  was  called  up,  and,  on 
hearing  what  had  happened,  put  the  stomach-pump  instantly  into  use, 
and,  turning  to  his  medical  books,  applied  incessantly  the  proper  reme 
dies  all  night,  till  the  arrival  of  the  medical  man  in  the  morning.  The 
remaining  dough  was  analyzed,  and  I  am  afraid  to  state  from  mem 
ory  the  number  of  grains  of  arsenic  he  had  swallowed.  The  medical 
man  said,  nothing  but  the  promptness  of  my  father's  remedies  could 
possibly  have  saved  the  poor  man's  life,  which  remained  doubtful  for 
many  days;  and  it  was  months  before  he  recovered  from  its  effects. 
But  he  lived  to  show  his  gratitude  to  his  master  by  his  watchful  and 
tender  care  of  him  in  his  last  illness. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY    SMITH.  317 

it  is  done  directly.  Look  here,  it  is  divided  into  differ 
ent  heads — the  carpenter,  the  blacksmith,  the  farm,  the 
sick,  the  house,  etc.,  etc. ;  that  is  the  way  to  keep  house 
in  the  country.  Every  day  I  look  through  these  wants, 
and  remedy  them.  Now,  Mrs.  Sydney,  you  want  eggs 
and  yeast.  I  will  mount  the  boys  on  the  ponies,  and 
they  shall  scour  the  country  forthwith,  and  you  shall  be 
supplied  with  yeast  and  eggs  till  you  cry,  Hold !  hold ! 
enough ! ' 

"Then,  looking  round  on  us :  'I  wish  I  could  sew. 
I  believe  one  reason  why  women  are  so  much  more 
cheerful,  generally,  than  men,  is  because  they  can  work, 
and  vary  more  their  employments.  Lady  -  -  used  to 
teach  her  sons  carpet-work.  All  men  ought  to  learn  to 
sew.' 

"  Speaking  of  manners  as  a  part  of  education  :  '  Yes, 
manners  are  often  too  much  neglected;  they  are  most 
important  to  men,  no  less  than  to  women.  I  believe  the 
English  are  the  most  disagreeable  people  under  the  sun  ; 
not  so  much  because  Mr.  John  Bull  disdains  to  talk,  as 
that  the  respected  individual  has  nothing  to  say,  and  be 
cause  he  totally  neglects  manners.  Look  at  a  French 
carter ;  he  takes  off  his  hat  to  his  neighbor  carter,  and 
inquires  after  "la  sante  de  madame,"  with  a  bow  that 
would  not  have  disgraced  Sir  Charles  Grandison  ;  and  I 
have  often  seen  a  French  soubrette  with  a  far  better  man 
ner  than  an  English  duchess.  Life  is  too  short  to  get 
over  a  bad  manner ;  besides,  manners  are  the  shadows 
of  virtue.' 

"  '  It  is  astonishing  the  influence  foolish  apothegms 
have  upon  the  mass  of  mankind,  though  they  are  not  un- 
frequently  fallacies.  Here  are  a  few  I  amused  myself 
with  writing,  long  before  Bentham's  book  on  fallacies. 


318  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

^  Fallacy  I. — '•Because  I  have  gone  through  it,  my  son 

shall  go  through  it  also.'9 

"A  man  gets  well  pommeled  at  a  public  school;  is 
subject  to  every  misery  and  every  indignity  which  sev 
enteen  years  of  age  can  inflict  upon  nine  and  ten ;  has 
his  eye  nearly  knocked  out,  and  his  clothes  stolen  and 
cut  to  pieces  ;  and  twenty  years  afterward,  when  he  is  a 
chrysalis,  and  has  forgotten  the  miseries  of  his  grub  state, 
is  determined  to  act  a  manly  part  in  life,  and  says,  '  I 
passed  through  all  that  myself,  and  I  am  determined  my 
son  shall  pass  through  it  as  I  have  done ;'  and  away  goes 
his  bleating  progeny  to  the  tyranny  and  servitude  of  the 
long  chamber  or  the  large  dormitory.  It  would  surely 
be  much  more  rational  to  say,  '  Because  I  have  passed 
through  it,  I  am  determined  my  son  shall  not  pass 
through  it ;  because  I  was  kicked  for  nothing,  and  cuff 
ed  for  nothing,  and  fagged  for  every  thing,  I  will  spare 
all  these  miseries  to  my  child.'  It  is  not  for  any  good 
which  may  be  derived  from  this  rough  usage ;  that  has 
not  been  weighed  and  considered ;  few  persons  are  capa 
ble  of  weighing  its  effects  upon  character ;  but  there  is  a 
sort  of  compensatory  and  consolatory  notion,  that  the 
present  generation  (whether  useful  or  not,  no  matter)  are 
not  to  come  off  scot-free,  but  are  to  have  their  share  of 
ill-usage ;  as  if  the  black  eye  and  bloody  nose  which 
Master  John  Jackson  received  in  1800,  are  less  black  and 
bloody  by  the  application  of  similar  violence  to  similar 
parts  of  Master  Thomas  Jackson,  the  son,  in  1830.  This 
is  not  only  sad  nonsense,  but  cruel  nonsense.  The  only 
use  to  be  derived  from  the  recollection  of  what  we  have 
suffered  in  youth,  is  a  fixed  determination  to  screen  those 
we  educate  from  every  evil  and  inconvenience,  from  sub 
jection  to  which  there  are  not  cogent  reasons  for  submit 
ting.  Can  any  thing  be  more  stupid  and  preposterous 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  319 

than  tins  concealed  revenge  upon  the  rising  generation, 
and  latent  envy  lest  they  should  avail  themselves  of  the 
improvements  time  has  made,  and  pass  a  happier  youth 
than  their  fathers  have  done  ? 

"Fallacy  II. — ^ I  have  said  I  will  do  it,  and  /will  do 

it  ;  I  will  stick  to  my  word.' 

"  This  fallacy  proceeds  from  confounding  resolutions 
with  promises.  If  you  have  promised  to  give  a  man  a 
guinea  for  a  reward,  or  to  sell  him  a  horse  or  a  field,  you 
must  do  it ;  you  are  dishonest  if  you  do  not.  But  if  you 
have  made  a  resolution  to  eat  no  meat  for  a  year,  and  every 
body  about  you  sees  that  you  are  doing  mischief  to  your 
constitution,  is  it  any  answer  to  say,  you  have  said  so, 
and  you  will  stick  to  your  word  ?  With  whom  have  you 
made  the  contract  but  with  yourself?  and  if  you  and 
yourself,  the  two  contracting  parties,  agree  to  break  the 
contract,  where  is  the  evil,  or  who  is  injured  ? 

"  Fallacy  III. — '  I  object  to  half-measures — it  is  nei* 
ther  one  thing  nor  the  other." 

"  But  why  should  it  be  either  one  thing  or  the  other? 
why  not  something  between  both  ?  Why  are  half-meas 
ures  necessarily  or  probably  unwise  measures  ?  I  am 
embarrassed  in  my  circumstances  ;  one  of  my  plans  is,  to 
persevere  boldly  in  the  same  line  of  expense,  and  to  trust 
to  the  chapter  of  accidents  for  some  increase  of  fortune ; 
the  other  is,  to  retire  entirely  from  the  world,  and  to  hide 
myself  in  a  cottage ;  but  I  end  with  doing  neither,  and 
take  a  middle  course  of  diminished  expenditure.  I  do 
neither  one  thing  nor  the  other,  but  possibly  act  wiser 
than  if  I  had  done  either.  I  am  highly  offended  by  the 
conduct  of  an  acquaintance;  I  neither  overlook  it  en 
tirely  nor  do  I  proceed  to  call  him  out ;  I  do  neither,  but 
show  him,  by  a  serious  change  of  manner,  that  T  consider 


820  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

myself  to  have  been  ill-treated.  I  effect  my  object  by 
half-measures.  I  can  not  agree  entirely  with  the  Oppo 
sition  or  the  Ministry ;  it  may  very  easily  happen  that 
my  half-measures  are  wiser  than  the  extremes  to  which 
they  are  opposed.  But  it  is  a  sort  of  metaphor  which 
debauches  the  understanding  of  foolish  people ;  and  when 
half-measures  are  mentioned,  they  have  much  the  same 
feeling  as  if  they  were  cheated — as  if  they  had  bargained 
for  a  whole  bushel  and  received  but  half.  To  act  in  ex 
tremes  is  sometimes  wisdom ;  to  avoid  them  is  sometimes 
wisdom ;  every  measure  must  be  judged  of  by  its  own 
particular  circumstances.7' 

"  'Did  you  ever  hear  my  definition  of  marriage?  It 
is,  that  it  resembles  a  pair  of  shears,  so  joined  that  they 
can  not  be  separated  ;  often  moving  in  opposite  directions, 
yet  always  punishing  any  one  who  comes  between  them.' 

"  Some  one  speaking  of  Macaulay  :  '  Yes,  I  take  great 
credit  to  myself;  I  always  prophesied  his  greatness  from 
the  first  moment  I  saw  him,  then  a  very  young  and  un 
known  man,  on  the  Northern  Circuit.  There  are  no  limits 
to  his  knowledge,  on  small  subjects  as  well  as  great ;  he 
he  is  like  a  book  in  breeches.  .  .  .  Yes,  I  agree,  he  is 
certainly  more  agreeable  since  his  return  from  India. 
His  enemies  might  perhaps  have  said  before  (though  I 
never  did  so)  that  he  talked  rather  too  much  ;  but  now  he 
has  occasional  flashes  of  silence,  that  make  his  conver 
sation  perfectly  delightful.  But  what  is  far  better  and 
more  important  than  all  this  is,  that  I  believe  Macaulay 
to  be  incorruptible.  You  might  lay  ribbons,  stars,  gar 
ters,  wealth,  titles,  before  him  in  vain.  He  has  an  hon 
est,  genuine  love  of  his  country,  and  the  world  could  not 
bribe  him  to  neglect  her  interests.' 

"  Talking  of  absence :  '  The  oddest  instance  of  absence 
of  mind  happened  to  me  once  in  forgetting  my  own  name. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  821 

I  knocked  at  a  door  in  London ;  asked,  Is  Mrs.  B 

at  home?  "Yes,  sir;  pray  what  name  shall  I  say?" 
I  looked  in  the  man's  face  astonished — what  name  ?  what 
name  ?  ay,  that  is  the  question  ;  what  is  my  name  ?  I 
believe  the  man  thought  me  mad  ;  but  it  is  literally  true, 
that  during  the  space  of  two  or  three  minutes  I  had  no 
more  idea  who  I  was  than  if  I  had  never  existed.  I  did 
not  know  whether  I  was  a  Dissenter  or  a  layman.  I  felt 
as  dull  as  Sternhold  and  Hopkins.  At  last,  to  my  great 
relief,  it  flashed  across  me  that  I  was  Sydney  Smith. 

"  '  I  heard  of  a  clergyman  who  went  jogging  along  the 
road  till  he  came  to  a  turnpike.  "What  is  to  pay?" 
"  Pay,  sir  ?  for  what  ?"  asked  the  turnpike-man.  "  Why, 
for  my  horse,  to  be  sure."  "Your  horse,  sir?  what 
horse?  Here  is  no  horse,  sir."  "ISTo  horse?  God 
bless  me ! "  said  he  suddenly,  looking  down  between  his 
legs,  "I  thought  I  was  on  horseback." 

"  'Lord  Dudley  was  one  of  the  most  absent  men  I 
think  I  ever  met  in  society.  One  day  he  met  me  in  the 
street,  and  invited  me  to  meet  myself.  "Dine  with  me 
to-day ;  dine  with  me,  and  I  will  get  Sydney  Smith  to 
meet  you."  I  admitted  the  temptation  he  held  out  to 
me,  but  said  I  was  engaged  to  meet  him  elsewhere.  An 
other  time,  on  meeting  me,  he  turned  back,  put  his  arm 
through  mine,  muttering,  "I  don't  mind  walking  with 
him  a  little  way ;  I'll  walk  with  him  as  far  as  the  end  of 
the  street."  As  we  proceeded  together,  W—  —passed: 
"That  is  the  villain,"  exclaimed  he,  "who  helped  me 
yesterday  to  asparagus,  and  gave  me  no  toast."  He  very 
nearly  overset  my  gravity  once  in  the  pulpit.  He  was 
sitting  immediately  under  me,  apparently  very  attentive, 
when  suddenly  he  took  up  his  stick,  as  if  he  had  been  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  tapping  on  the  ground  with 
it,  cried  out  in  a  low  but  very  audible  whisper,  "Hear! 
hear !  hear ! " 


322  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

"'By-the-by,  it  happened  to  be  a  charity  sermon, 
and  I  considered  it  a  wonderful  proof  of  my  eloquence, 

that  it  actually  moved  old  Lady  C to  borrow  a 

sovereign  from  Dudley,  and  that  he  actually  gave  it 
her,  though  knowing  he  must  take  a  long  farewell  of  it. 

I  was  told  afterward  by  Lady  S that  she  rejoiced 

to  see  it  had  brought  "iron  tears  down  Pluto's  cheek" 
(meaning  by  that  her  husband),  certainly  little  given  to 
the  melting  mood  in  any  sense. 

"  '  One  speech,  I  remember,  of  Dudley's,  gratified 
me  much.  When  I  took  leave  of  him,  on  quitting  Lon 
don  to  go  into  Yorkshire,  he  said  to  me,  "You  have 
been  laughing  at  me  constantly,  Sydney,  for  the  last 
seven  years,  and  yet  in  all  that  time  you  never  said  a 
single  thing  to  me  that  I  wished  unsaid."  This,  I  con 
fess,  pleased  me.*  .  .  .  But  I  must  go  and  scour  the 
country  for  yeast  and  eggs ;'  and  off  he  went. 

"After  luncheon  appeared  at  the  door  a  low  green 
garden-chair,  holding  two,  and  drawn  by  the  two  don 
keys  already  introduced ;  but  despoiled,  to  their  obvious 
relief,  of  their  antlers.  '  This  was  built  by  my  village 
carpenter,'  said  he,  'but  its  chief  merit  is  that  it  can 
not  be  overturned.  You  need  not  fear  my  driving  now ; 
Mrs.  Sydney  will  give  me  an  excellent  character.  She 
was  very  much  afraid  of  me  when  I  first  took  to  driving 
her  in  Yorkshire,  but  she  raised  my  wages  before  the 
first  month.  I  am  become  an  excellent  whip,  I  assure 
you.'  So  saying,  he  mounted  into  the  little  vehicle,  and 
set  off  with  his  lady  at  a  foot's  pace,  we  following  in 

*  It  is  most  gratifying  to  find  how  often  this  delicate  use  of  his  great 
powers  of  wit  and  sarcasm  is  alluded  to  by  his  friends  and  acquaintance 
in  the  papers  intrusted  to  me.  I  see  it  is  said  of  him,  in  one  of  the 
publications,  at  his  death  :  "  It  is  a  rare  distinction,  but  one  which 
ought  to  be  Avritten  on  his  monument,  that  while  he  wasted  no  gift  of 
those  so  liberally  bestowed  upon  him,  in  ministering  to  the  unworthy 
pleasures  of  others,  or  in  promoting  his  own  selfish  aggrandizement — 
as  a  wit  he  was  more  beloved  than  feared." 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  323 

his  train  down  the  pretty  valley  into  which  the  garden 
opened,  and  through  his  wood  walks,  till  we  came  out 
upon  a  fine  table-land  above  the  house,  commanding  a 
splendid  view  of  the  fine  range  of  the  Quantoc  Hills  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  rich  Vale  of  Taunton  on  the  other. 

"'There!'  said  he,  'behold  all  the  wonders  of  the 
world  beneath  you !  can  any  thing  be  more  exquisite, 
more  beautiful  ?  I  often  come  up  here  to  meditate.  I 
think  of  building  a  Gazebo  here.  The  landscape  is  per 
fect;  it  wants  nothing  but  water  and  a  wise  man.  I 
think  it  was  Jekyll  who  used  to  say,  that  "the  further 
he  went  west,  the  more  convinced  he  felt  that  the  wise 
men  did  come  from  the  east."  We  have  not  such  an 
article.  You  might  ride  from  the  rising  up  of  the  sun 
until  the  going  down  thereof  in  these  regions,  and  not 
find  one  (I  mean  a  real  philosopher)  whom  you  would 
consult  on  the  great  affairs  of  life.  We  are  thoroughly 
primitive ;  agriculture  and  agricultural  tools  are  fifty 
years  behind  the  rest  of  England. 

"  '  A  neighboring  squire  called  on  me  the  other  day, 
and  informed  me  he  had  been  reading  a  delightful  book. 
The  fact  of  his  having  any  literary  pursuits  at  all  was 
equally  agreeable  and  surprising  to  me,  and  I  inquired 
the  subject  of  his  studies.  "Oh!"  said  he,  "the  Ara 
bian  Nights'  Entertainments ;  I  have  just  got  it,  and 
I  advise  you  to  read  it.  I  assure  you,  Mr.  Smith,  you 
will  find  it  a  most  amusing  book."  I  thanked  him,  cor 
dially  agreed  with  him,  but  ventured  to  suggest  that 
the  book  was  not  entirely  unknown  to  me.' 

"  '  A  joke  goes  a  great  way  in  the  country.  I  have 
known  one  last  pretty  well  for  seven  years.  I  remem 
ber  making  a  joke  after  a  meeting  of  the  clergy,  in 
Yorkshire,  where  there  was  a  Rev.  Mr.  Buckle,  who 
never  spoke  when  I  gave  his  health ;  saying,  that  he 
was  a  buckle  without  a  tongue.  Most  persons  within 


324  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

hearing  laughed,  but  my  next  neighbor  sat  unmoved  and 
sunk  in  thought.  At  last,  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  we 
had  all  done,  he  suddenly  nudged  me,  exclaiming,  "I 
see  now  what  you  meant,  Mr.  Smith;  you  meant  a  joke." 
"  Yes,"  I  said,  "  sir ;  I  believe  I  did."  Upon  which  he 
began  laughing  so  heartily,  that  I  thought  he  would 
choke,  and  was  obliged  to  pat  him  on  the  back.' 

"  Talking  of  the  singular  degree  of  obstinacy  of  Miss 

— ,  on  the  most  difficult  and  doubtful  subjects,  '  Oh ! 
nothing  but  a  surgical  operation  will  avail ;  it  must  be 
cut  out  of  her.' 

"  '  I  see  you  will  not  believe  it,  but  I  was  once  veiy 
shy.'  'Were  you  indeed,  Mr.  Smith?  how  did  you 
cure  yourself?'  'Why,  it  was  not  very  long  before  I 
made  two  very  useful  discoveries :  first,  that  all  man 
kind  were  not  solely  employed  in  observing  me  (a  belief 
that  all  young  people  have) ;  and  next,  that  shamming 
was  of  no  use ;  that  the  world  was  very  clear-sighted, 
and  soon  estimated  a  man  at  his  just  value.  This  cured 
me,  and  I  determined  to  be  natural,  and  let  the  world 
find  me  out.' 

"  '  Oh  yes  I  we  both  talk  a  great  deal,  but  I  don't 
believe  Macaulay  ever  did  hear  my  voice,'  he  exclaimed, 
laughing.  4  Sometimes,  when  I  have  told  a  good  story, 
I  have  thought  to  myself,  Poor  Macaulay  !  he  will  be 
very  sorry  some  day  to  have  missed  hearing  that.' 

" 4  Other  rules  vary ;  this  is  the  only  one  you  will 
find  without  exception — that,  in  this  world,  the  salary 
or  reward  is  always  in  the  inverse  ratio  of  the  duties 
performed.' 

"  Some  one  speaking  of  Mr.  Grenville :  '  I  always 
feel  better  for  being  in  Mr.  Grenville's  company :  it  is 
a  beautiful  sunset.  You  know  the  man  in  a  regiment 
who  is  selected  to  stand  out  before  them  as  their  model ; 
he  is  called  the  fugleman.  Now,  Mr.  Grenville  I  al- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  325 

ways  consider  as  the  fugleman  of  old  age.  He  has 
contrived  to  combine  the  freshness  and  greenness  of 
mind  belonging  to  youth,  with  the  dignity  and  wisdom 
of  age.' 

"  Some  one  wondering  at  his  praises  of ,  and 

telling  Sydney  that  he  often  abused  him :  '  Oh ! '  said 
my  father,  laughing,  '  I  know  he  does  not  spare  me, 
but  that  is  no  reason  I  should  not  praise  him.  At  all 
times  I  had  rather  be  the  ox  than  the  butcher? 

"  Talking  of  Sheridan  :  '  Creevy  told  me,  once,  when 
dining  with  Sheridan,  after  the  ladies  had  departed,  he 
drew  the  chair  to  the  fire,  and  confided  to  Creevy  that 
they  had  just  had  a  fortune  left  them.  "Mrs.  Sheridan 
and  I,"  said  he,  "have  made  the  solemn  vow  to  each 
other  to  mention  it  to  no  one,  and  nothing  induces  me 
now  to  confide  it  to  you  but  the  absolute  conviction  that 
Mrs.  Sheridan  is  at  this  moment  confiding  it  to  Mrs. 
Creevy  up  stairs."  Soon  after  this  I  went  to  visit  him 
in  the  country  with  a  large  party ;  he  had  taken  a  villa. 
No  expense  was  spared;  a  magnificent  dinner,  excellent 
wines,  but  not  a  candle  to  be  had  to  go  to  bed  by  in 
the  house ;  in  the  morning  no  butter  appeared,  or  was 
to  be  procured  for  breakfast.  He  said,  it  was  not  a 
butter  country,  he  believed.  But  with  Sheridan  for 
host,  and  the  charm  of  his  wit  and  conversation,  who 
cared  for  candles,  butter,  or  any  thing  else?  In  the 
evening  there  was  a  quarrel  among  the  fiddlers,  they 
absolutely  refusing  to  play  with  a  blind  fiddler,  who 
had  unexpectedly  arrived  and  insisted  upon  perform 
ing  with  them.  He  turned  out  at  last  to  be  Mathews ; 
his  acting  was  quite  inimitable.' 

"  This  brought  us  home  again.  Meeting  at  the  door 
his  grandson,  returning  quite  exhausted  with  a  prodig 
ious  walk  :  '  Oh,  foolish  boy !  remember,  head  for  glory, 
feet  for  use.' 


326  MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

"He  then  left  us,  and  might  be  seen  in  his  pretty 
library ;  sometimes  in  his  arm-chair,  seated,  with  books 
of  different  kinds  piled  round  him,  some  grave,  some 
gay,  as  his  humor  varied  from  hour  to  hour.  And  this 
rapid  change  of  mood,  which  I  see  his  friend  Mr.  ]\Ioore 
remarks  upon,  was  one  thing  among  many  which  gave 
such  freshness  and  raciness  to  his  conversation:  you 
never  could  guess  what  would  come  next.  At  other 
times  seated  at  a  large  table  in  the  bay-window,  with 
his  desk  before  him — on  one  end  of  this  table  a  case, 
something  like  a  small  deal  music-stand,  filled  with 
manuscript  books — on  the  other  a  large  deal  tray,  filled 
with  a  leaden  ink-stand,  containing  ink  enough  for  a 
county ;  a  magnifying  glass ;  a  carpenter's  rule ;  sev 
eral  large  steel  pens,  which  it  was  high  treason  to  touch ; 
a  glass  bowl  full  of  shot  and  water,  to  clean  these  pre 
cious  pens ;  and  some  red  tape,  which  he  called  '  one 
of  the  grammars  of  life  ;'  a  measuring  line,  and  various 
other  articles,  more  useful  than  ornamental.  At  this 
writing  establishment,  unique  of  its  kind,  he  could  turn 
his  mind  with  equal  facility,  in  company  or  alone,  to 
any  subject,  whether  of  business,  study,  politics,  in 
struction,  or  amusement,  and  move  the  minds  of  his 
hearers  to  laughter  or  tears  at  his  pleasure." 

He  used  to  say  he  never  considered  his  education 
finished.  To  the  last  years  of  his  life,  he  kept  up  his 
classical  studies,  his  reading  and  analysis  of  the  Bible 
(of  which  I  find  notes  in  his  papers),  and  profane  and 
ecclesiastical  history,  from  which  he  frequently  put 
down  hints,  some  of  which  I  have  given.  He  was  also 
very  fond  of  exercising  himself  in  translating  English 
into  French,  which  he  spoke  with  great  fluency,  but  did 
not  write  correctly.  He  frequently  interrupted  these 
pursuits  by  issuing  forth  into  his  gay  garden,  to  take  a 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  EEV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  327 

stroll  round  it  by  himself,  stopping  at  intervals,  with  his 
crutch-stick  swung  behind  him,  as  usual,  as  if  medita 
ting  on  the  subject  of  his  studies ;  or  sometimes  sitting- 
down  on  the  lawn  to  watch  or  join  in  the  gambols  of  his 
little  grandchildren,  or  to  comfort  them  in  some  childish 
affliction,  in  which  the  never-failing  sugar-plum  box  was 
found  a  most  useful  assistant ;  sometimes  in  conference 
with  Jack  Spratt  or  Annie  Kay  on  some  domestic  con 
cern.  When  we  met  at  dinner,  he  was,  if  possible,  more 
agreeable  than  he  had  been  during  the  day.  "  Sydney's 
wit,"  as  was  happily  said  of  him  by  Mr.  Howard,  "is 
always  fresh;  you  find  the  dew  still  on  it."  It  is  re 
marked  of  him  somewhere  that  "he  had  the  power  of 
breathing  the  breath  of  life  into  a  dead  truism ;  every 
thing  coming  from  his  mind  seemed  to  be  original,  even 
when  it  was  old." 

One  of  his  most  intimate  friends  writes  of  him — "  It 
is  quite  extraordinary  how  different  every  word  that 
drops  from  Sydney's  pen  is  from  any  thing  else  in  the 
world.  Individuality  is  stamped  on  every  sentence, 
and  you  can  hardly  read  a  page  without  coming  to  some 
sentence  that  no  other  man  could  have  written.  It  was 
the  same  with  his  conversation." 

It  signified  not  what  the  materials  were :  I  never  re 
member  a  dull  dinner  in  his  company.*  He  extracted 
amusement  from  every  subject,  however  hopeless.  He 
descended  and  adapted  himself  to  the  meanest  capacity, 
without  seeming  to  do  so ;  he  led  without  seeking  to 
lead ;  he  never  sought  to  shine — the  light  appeared  be 
cause  he  could  not  help  it.  Nobody  felt  excluded.  He 
had  the  happy  art  of  always  saying  the  best  thing  in 

*  My  poor  mother  felt  the  change  so  strongly  after  his  death  that,  on 
dining  out  for  the  first  time  alone,  she  said,  "  Every  body  seemed  to  her 
so  unusually  flat,  that  she  thought  they  must  all  have  suffered  some  se 
vere  loss." 


328  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

the  best  manner  to  the  right  person  at  the  right  mo 
ment  ;  it  was  a  touch-and-go  impossible  to  describe, 
guided  by  such  tact  and  attention  to  the  feelings  of 
others,  that  those  he  most  attacked  seemed  most  to  en 
joy  the  attack :  never  in  the  same  mood  for  two  min 
utes  together,  and  each  mood  seemed  to  be  more  agree 
able  than  the  last.  "  I  talk  a  little  sometimes,"  said 
he,  "  and  it  used  to  be  an  amusement  among  the  serv 
ants  at  the  Archbishop  of  York's,  to  snatch  away  my 
plate  when  I  began  talking ;  so  I  got  a  habit  of  holding 
it  with  one  hand  when  so  engaged,  and  dining  at  single 
anchor." 

"Now,  I  mean  not  to  drink  one  drop  of  wine  to-day, 
and  I  shall  be  mad  with  spirits.  I  always  am  when  I 
drink  no  wine.  It  is  curious  the  effect  a  thimbleful  of 

wine  has  upon  me ;  I  feel  as  flat  as  's  jokes ;  it 

destroys  my  understanding :  I  forget  the  number  of  the 
Muses,  and  think  them  thirty-nine  of  course  ;  and  only 
get  myself  right  again  by  repeating  the  lines,  and  find 
ing  '  Descend,  ye  thirty-nine  !'  two  feet  too  long." 

"  Oh,  Saba  carves  for  me.  I  always  tell  her  I  shall 
cut  her  off  with  a  shilling  if  she  ever  asks  me  to  help 
her  to  a  dish  before  me.  It  is  quite  a  pleasure  to  see 
her  carve." 

"That  pudding!  yes,  that  was  the  pudding  Lady 
Holland  asked  the  recipe  for  when  she  came  to  see  us. 
I  shook  my  head,  and  said  it  could  not  be  done,  even 
for  her  ladyship.  She  became  more  urgent ;  Mrs.  Syd 
ney  was  soft-hearted,  and  gave  it.  The  glory  of  it  al 
most  turned  my  cook's  head :  she  has  never  been  the 
same  since.  But  our  forte  in  the  culinary  line  is  our 
salads :  I  pique  myself  on  our  salads.  Saba  always 
dresses  them  after  my  recipe.  I  have  put  it  into  verse. 
Taste  it,  and,  if  you  like  it,  I  will  give  it  you.  I  was 
not  aware  how  much  it  had  contributed  to  my  repu- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  329 

tation,  till  I  met  Lady  -  -  at  Bowood,  who  begged 
to  be  introduced  to  me,  saying,  she  had  so  long  wished 
to  know  me.  I  was  of  course  highly  nattered,  till  she 
added,  '  For,  Mr.  Smith,  I  have  heard  so  much  of  your 
recipe  for  salads,  that  I  was  most  anxious  to  obtain  it 
from  you.'  Such  and  so  various  are  the  sources  of  fame  ! 

"  To  make  this  condiment,  your  poet  begs 
The  pounded  yellow  of  two  hard-boil'd  eggs  ; 
Two  boil'd  potatoes,  pass'd  through  kitchen  sieve, 
Smoothness  and  softness  to  the  salad  give. 
Let  onion  atoms  lurk  within  the  bowl, 
And,  half-suspected,  animate  the  whole. 
Of  mordant  mustard  add  a  single  spoon, 
Distrust  the  condiment  that  bites  so  soon ; 
But  deem  it  not,  thou  man  of  herbs,  a  fault, 
To  add  a  double  quantity  of  salt. 
And,  lastly,  o'er  the  flavor' d  compound  toss 
A  magic  soup9on  of  anchovy  sauce. 
Oh,  green  and  glorious !     Oh,  herbaceous  treat ! 
'Twould  tempt  the  dying  anchorite  to  eat : 
Back  to  the  world  he'd  turn  his  fleeting  soul, 
And  plunge  his  fingers  in  the  salad  bowl ! 
Serenely  full,  the  epicure  would  say, 
Fate  can  not  harm  me,  I  have  dined  to-day." 

"Mrs.  Sydney  was  dreadfully  alarmed  about  her  side- 
dishes  the  first  time  Luttrell  paid  us  a  visit,  and  grew 
pale  as  the  covers  were  lifted ;  but  they  stood  the  test. 
Luttrell  tasted  and  praised.  He  spent  a  week  with  us, 
and  having  associated  him  only  with  Pall  Mall,  I  confess 
I  was  agreeably  surprised  to  find  how  pleasant  an  inmate 
he  made  of  a  country-house,  and  almost  of  a  family  par 
ty  ;  so  light  in  hand,  so  willing  to  be  pleased.  Some  of 
his  Irish  stories,  too,  were  most  amusing,  and  his  man 
ner  of  telling  them  so  good.  One  :  '  Is  your  master  at 
home,  Paddy?'  '  jVo,  your  honor.'  'Why,  I  saw  him 
go  in  five  minutes  ago.'  'Faith,  your  honor,  he's  not 
exactly  at  home;  he's  only  there  in  the  back -yard 
a-shooting  rats  with  cannon,  your  honor,  for  his  devar- 
sionS 


330  MEMOIR   OF   THE   REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"A  school  examination,  too:  the  children  were  asked 
what  the  first  woman  was  made  of.  A  general  burst  of 
'  Ribs  of  mon  !  ribs  of  man  /'  '  And  what  was  the  first 
man  made  of?'  ' Doost  and  ashes!  doost  and  ashes!' 
was  the  reply.  After  this  trial  of  us,  he  repeated  his 
visits  several  times,  and  we  found  him  a  most  agreeable 
inmate. 

"  Oh,  don't  tell  me  of  facts,  I  never  believe  facts :  you 
know,  Canning  said  nothing  was  so  fallacious  as  facts, 
except  figures." 

"  My  friend  Ord's  place  is  the  last  spot  in  England : 
all  beyond  is  chaos." 

"  That  is  a  fine  idea  of  Clarke's — 'The  frost  is  God's 
plow,  which  he  drives  through  every  inch  of  ground  in 
the  world,  opening  each  clod  and  pulverizing  the  whole.' '' 

"  When  some  one  asked  what  could  induce  the  Min 
istry  to  send  Lord  M to  Ireland  and  Lord  C 

to  Scotland,  Jekyll  said,  '  Oh,  it  is  only  the  doctor  wTho 
ha  put  wrong  labels  on  them  by  mistake.'  The  apoth 
ecaries'  boys  in  London  do  this  on  purpose,  and  change 
the  labels  for  their  amusement :  so  Lady  F.  takes  Lord 
D.'s  embrocation,  and  Lord  D.  rubs  his  leg  with  her 
draught ;  but  the  most  remarkable  part  of  it  all  is,  that 
it  answers  just  as  well  as  if  the  labels  had  been  left." 

"  I  once  dissuaded  a  youth  from  entering  the  army, 
on  which  he  was  bent,  at  the  risk  of  breaking  his  moth 
er's  heart,  by  asking  him  how  he  would  prevent  his  sword 
from  getting  between  his  legs.  It  quite  staggered  him ; 
he  never  solved  the  difficulty,  and  took  to  peace  instead 
of  war." 

"  I  agree  with  Sir  James  ]\Iackintosh,  and  have  found 
the  world  more  good  and  more  foolish  than  I  thought 
when  young." 

"It  is  an  unlucky  book — fine  sentiments  fined  down 
till  you  can't  see  them ;  encouraging  young  ladies  in 


MEMOIR    OF   TUP:    11EV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  331 

dangerous  imaginings  of  what  is  not  ;  of  an  exquisite 
fellow  bursting  with  sentiment,  only  he  is  in  the  moon 
and  can't  be  reached.  I  will,  I  think,  write  an  opposi 
tion  hero,  who  shall  be  the  antidote." 

"  The  most  promising  sign  in  a  boy  is,  I  should  say, 
mathematics." 

"Madame  de  Sevigne  I  think  much  overpraised;  ev 
ery  body  writes  as  well  now.  Lady  Mary  Wortley 
wrote  much  better,  sound  sense.  Twelve  volumes  of 
pretty  turns  are  too  much." 

"You  remember  Thurlow's  answer  to  some  one  com 
plaining  of  the  injustice  of  a  company.  '  Why,  you 
never  expected  justice  from  a  company,  did  you  ?  they 
have  neither  a  soul  to  lose,  nor  a  body  to  kick.'  v 

"  Ah,  you  always  detect  a  little  of  the  Irish  fossil,  the 
potato,  peeping  out  in  an  Irishman." 

Some  one,  speaking  of  Missions,  ridiculed  them  as  in 
efficient.  He  dissented,  saying,  that  "though  all  was 
not  done  that  was  projected,  or  even  boasted  of,  yet  that 
much  good  resulted  ;  and  that  wherever  Christianity  was 
taught,  it  brought  with  it  the  additional  good  of  civiliza 
tion  in  its  train,  and  men  became  better  carpenters,  bet 
ter  cultivators,  better  every  thing." 

He  mentioned  somebody  rising  in  the  House,  saying, 
"I  rise  to  answer  the  Honorable  Alligator  on  the  other 
side  of  the  House." 

"  Have  you  heard  my  parody  on  Pope  ? — 

"  Why  has  not  man  a  collar  and  a  log? 
For  this  plain  reason — man  is  not  a  dog. 
Why  is  not  man  served  up  with  sauce  in  dish  ? 
For  this  plain  reason — man  is  not  a  fish. 

There  are  a  great  many  other  whys,  but  I  will  spare  you." 

"  Was  not very  disagreeable  ?      '  Why,  he  was 

as  disagreeable  as  the  occasion  would  permit,'  Luttrell 
said." 


332  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

"Nobody  was  more  witty  or  more  bitter  than  Lord 
Ellenborougli.  A  young  lawyer,  trembling  with  fear, 
rose  to  make  his  first  speech,  and  began :  '  My  lord, 
my  unfortunate  client —  My  lord,  my  unfortunate 
client —  My  lord —  '  Go  on,  sir,  go  on,'  said  Lord 
E. ;  'as  far  as  you  have  proceeded  hitherto,  the  Court 
is  entirely  with  you.'  This  was  perhaps  irresistible; 
but  yet,  how  wicked!  how  cruel!  it  deserves  a  thou 
sand  years'  punishment  at  least." 

"Luttrell  used  to  say,  'I  hate  the  sight  of  monkeys, 
they  remind  me  so  of  poor  relations.' ' 

"Oh,  they  were  all  so  beautiful,  that  Paris  could  not 
have  decided  between  them,  but  would  have  cut  his 
apple  in  slices." 

"When  I  went  into  Hundell  and  Bridges's,  there 
were  heaps  of  diamonds  lying  loose  about  the  counter. 
I  never  saw  so  many  temptations,  and  so  little  apparent 
watchfulness.  I  thought  there  were  many  sops,  and 
110  Cerberus.  But  they  told  me,  when  I  asked,  that 
there  were  unseen  eyes  directed  upon  me  in  every  part 
of  the  shop." 

Speaking  of  Lady  Murray's  mother,  who  had  a  most 
benevolent  countenance:  "Her  smile  is  so  radiant,  that 
I  believe  it  would  force  even  a  gooseberry-bush  into 
flower." 

Some  young  person,  answering  on  a  subject  in  dis 
cussion,  "I  don't  know  that,"  he  said,  smiling,  "Ah! 
what  you  don't  know  would  make  a  great  book,  as 

C—   -  replied  to  B ." 

"  I  never  go  to  tragedies,  my  heart  is  too  soft.  There 
is  too  much  real  misery  in  life.  But  what  a  face  she 
had !  The  gods  do  not  bestow  such  a  face  as  Mrs. 
Siddons's  on  the  stage  more  than  once  in  a  century.  I 
knew  her  very  well,  and  she  had  the  good  taste  to  laugh 
heartily  at  my  jokes ;  she  was  an  excellent  person,  but 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH  333 

she  was  not  remarkable  out  of  her  profession,  and  never 
got  out  of  tragedy  even  in  common  life.  She  used  to 
stab  the  potatoes  ;  and  said,  '  Boy,  give  me  a  knife ! '  as 
she  would  have  said,  '  Give  me  the  dagger!' 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Sydney  believes  it  is  all  true ;  and  when 
I  went  with  her  to  the  play,  I  was  always  obliged  to 
sit  behind  her,  arid  whisper,  '  Why,  Kate,  he  is  not 
really  going  to  kill  her — she  is  not  really  dead,  you 
know ;'  or  she  would  have  cried  her  eyes  out,  and  gone 
into  hysterics." 

"All  gentlemen  and  ladies  eat  too  much.  I  made  a 
calculation,  and  found  I  must  have  consumed  some 
wagon-loads  too  much  in  the  course  of  my  life.  Lock 
up  the  mouth,  and  you  have  gained  the  victory.  I 
believe  our  friend,  Lady  Morley,  has  hit  upon  the  right 
plan  in  dining  modestly  at  two.  When  we  are  absorbed 
in  side-dishes,  and  perplexed  with  variety  of  wines,  she 
sits  among  us,  lightly  flirting  with  a  potato,  in  full  pos 
session  of  her  faculties,  and  at  liberty  to  make  the  best 
use  of  them — a  liberty,  it  must  be  owned,  she  does  not 
neglect,  for  how  agreeable  she  is  !  I  like  Lady  Morley ; 
she  is  what  I  call  good  company" 

"Never  was  known  such  a  summer  as  this  ;  water  is 
selling  at  threepence  a  pint.  My  cows  drink  beer,  my 
horses  ale." 

"The  French  certainly  understand  the  art  of  furnish 
ing  better  than  we  do ;  the  profusion  of  glass  in  their 
rooms  gives  such  gayety.  I  remember  entering  a 
room  with  glass  all  round  it,  at  the  French  Em 
bassy,  and  saw  myself  reflected  on  every  side.  I 
took  it  for  a  meeting  of  the  clergy,  and  was  delighted  of 
course." 

"In  composing,  as  a  general  rule,  run  your  pen 
through  every  other  word  you  have  written ;  you  have 
no  idea  what  vigor  it  will  give  your  style." 


334  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.    SYDNEY   SMITH. 

The   conversation  turning  on  ,  I  forget  who  it 

was  said  so  well,  "  There  is  the  same  difference  be 
tween  their  tongues  as  between  the  hour  and  the  minute 
hand ;  one  goes  ten  times  as  fast,  and  the  other  signifies 
ten  times  as  much." 

"I  think  no  house  is  well  fitted  up  in  the  country 
without  people  of  all  ages.  There  should  be  an  old 
man  or  woman  to  pet ;  a  parrot,  a  child,  a  monkey ; 
something,  as  the  French  say,  to  love  and  to  despise. 
I  have  just  bought  a  parrot,  to  keep  my  servants  in 
good-humor." 

"No,  I  don't  like  dogs ;  I  always  expect  them  to  go 
mad.  A  lady  asked  me  once  for  a  motto  for  her  dog- 
Spot.  I  proposed,  'Out,  damned  Spot!'  but  she  did 
not  think  it  sentimental  enough.  You  remember  the 
story  of  the  French  marquise,  who,  when  her  pet  lap- 
dog  bit  a  piece  out  of  her  footman's  leg,  exclaimed, 
'  Ah,  poor  little  beast  I  I  hope  it  won't  make  him  sick.' 

I  called  one  day  on  Mrs. ,  and  her  lap-dog  flew  at 

my  leg  and  bit  it.  After  pitying  her  dog,  like  the 
French  marquise,  she  did  all  she  could  to  comfort  me, 
by  assuring  me  the  dog  was  a  Dissenter,  and  hated  the 
Church,  and  was  brought  up  in  a  Tory  family.  But 
whether  the  bite  came  from  madness  or  Dissent,  I  knew 
myself  too  well  to  neglect  it ;  and  went  on  the  instant 
to  a  surgeon  and  had  it  cut  out,  making  a  mem.  on  the 
way  to  enter  that  house  no  more." 

"If  you  want  to  make  much  of  a  small  income,  al 
ways  ask  yourself  these  two  questions :  first,  do  I  really 
want  it  ?  secondly,  can  I  do  without  it  ?  These  two 
questions,  answered  honestly,  will  double  your  fortune. 
I  have  always  inculcated  it  in  my  family." 

"Lady is  a  remarkably  clever,  agreeable  wo 
man,  but  Nature  has  made  one  trifling  omission — a 
heart;  I  do  like  a  little  heart,  I  must  confess." 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  335 

"  I  never  was  asked  in  all  my  life  to  be  a  trustee  or 
an  executor.  No  one  believes  that  I  can  be  a  plod 
ding  man  of  business,  as  mindful  of  its  dry  details  as 
the  gravest  and  most  stupid  man  alive." 

" 1  have  heard  that  one  of  the  American  ministers  in 
this  country  was  so  oppressed  by  the  numbers  of  his 
countrymen  applying  for  introductions,  that  he  was 
obliged  at  last  to  set  up  sham  Sydney  Smiths  and 
false  Macaulays.  But  they  can't  have  been  good 
counterfeits  ;  for  a  most  respectable  American,  on 
his  return  home,  was  heard  describing  Sydney  Smith 
as  a  thin,  grave,  dull  old  fellow;  and  as  to  Macau- 
lay  (said  he),  I  never  met  a  more  silent  man  in  all  my 
life!" 

Talking  of  Mrs.   :     "She  has   not  very   clear 

ideas,  though,  about  the  tides.  I  remember,  at  a  large 
party  at  -  -  House,  her  insisting  that  it  was  always 
high  tide  at  London-bridge  at  twelve  o'clock.  She 
referred  to  me :  *  Now,  Mr.  Smith,  is  it  not  so  ?'  I 
answered,  '  It  used  not  to  be  so,  I  believe,  formerly,  but 
perhaps  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen  have  altered  it 
lately.'" 

"Mr.  -  —  once  came  to  see  us  in  Yorkshire;  and 
he  was  so  small  and  so  active,  he  looked  exactly  like  a 
little  spirit  running  about  in  a  kind  of  undress  without 
a  body." 

Speaking  of  a  robbery:  "It  is  Bacon,  I  think,  who 
says  so  beautifully,  'He  that  robs  in  darkness  breaks 
God's  lock.'  How  fine  that  is !" 

On  some  persons  mentioning  Mr.  -  — :  "Yes,  I 
honor  him  for  his  talents  and  character,  and  his  mis 
fortunes  have  softened  the  little  asperities  of  his  man 
ner,  and  made  him  much  more  agreeable.  Tears  are 
the  waters  of  the  heart." 

"People  complain  of  their  servants:   I  never  had  a 


336  MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH. 

bad  one ;  but  then  I  study  their  comforts,  that  is  one 
recipe  for  securing  good  servants.''* 

"Dante,   in  his   'Purgatorio,'  would  have   assigned 

iive  hundred  years  of  assenting  to  ,  and  as  many 

to Upraising  his  fellow-creatures/' 

"I  have  divided  mankind  into  classes.  There  is  the 
Noodle — very  numerous,  but  well  known.  The  Afflic 
tion-woman — a  valuable  member  of  society,  generally 
an  ancient  spinster,  or  distant  relation  of  the  family,  in 
small  circumstances :  the  moment  she  hears  of  any  acci 
dent  or  distress  in  the  family.,  she  sets  off,  packs  up 
her  little  bag,  and  is  immediately  established  there,  to 
comfort,  natter,  fetch,  and  carry.  The  Up-takers — a 
class  of  people  who  only  see  through  their  fingers'  ends, 
and  go  through  a  room  taking  up  and  touching  every 
thing,  however  visible  and  however  tender.  The  Clear- 
ers — who  begin  at  the  dish  before  them,  and  go  on  pick 
ing  or  tasting  till  it  is  cleared,  however  large  the  com 
pany,  small  the  supply,  and  rare  the  contents.  The 
Sheep-walkers — those  who  never  deviate  from  the  beaten 
track,  who  think  as  their  fathers  have  thought  since  the 
flood,  who  start  from  a  new  idea  as  they  would  from 
guilt.  The  Lemon-squeezers  of  society — people  who 
act  on  you  as  a  wet  blanket,  who  see  a  cloud  in  the 
sunshine,  the  nails  of  the  coffin  in  the  ribbons  of  the 
bride,  predictors  of  evil,  extinguishers  of  hope :  who, 
where  there  are  two  sides,  see  only  the  worst — people 
whose  very  look  curdles  the  milk,  and  sets  your  teeth 
on  edge.  The  Let-well-aloners — cousins-german  to  the 
Noodle,  yet  a  variety ;  people  who  have  begun  to  think 
and  to  act,  but  are  timid,  and  afraid  to  try  their  wings, 
and  tremble  at  the  sound  of  their  own  footsteps  as 
they  advance,  and  think  it  safer  to  stand  still.  Then 
the  Washerwomen  —  very  numerous,  who  exclaim, 
*  He  hardly  ever  lost  a  servant  but  from  marriage  or  death. 


MEMOIli   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  337 

4  Well !  as  sure  as  ever  I  put  on  my  best  "bonnet,  it 
is  certain  to  rain,'  etc.  There  are  many  more,  but  I 
forget  them. 

"  Oh  yes  !  there  is  another  class,  as  you  say;  people 
who  are  always  treading  on  your  gouty  foot,  or  talking 
in  your  deaf  ear,  or  asking  you  to  give  them  something 
with  your  lame  hand,  stirring  up  your  weak  point,  rub 
bing  your  sore,  etc.'' 

"  The  advice  I  sent  to  the  Bishop  of  New  Zealand, 
when  he  had  to  receive  the  cannibal  chiefs  there,  was  to 
say  to  them,  *  I  deeply  regret,  sirs,  to  have  nothing  on 
my  own  table  suited  to  your  tastes,  but  you  will  find 
plenty  of  cold  curate  and  roasted  clergyman  on  the 
side-board ;'  and  if,  in  spite  of  this  prudent  provision, 
his  visitors  should  end  their  repast  by  eating  him  like 
wise,  why  I  could  only  add,  'I  sincerely  hoped  he 
would  disagree  with  them.'  In  this  last  sentiment  he 
must  cordially  have  agreed  with  me ;  and,  upon  the 
whole,  he  must  have  considered  it  a  useful  hint,  and 
would  take  it  kindly.  Don't  you  think  so  ?" 

On  joining  us  in  the  drawing-room,  and  sitting  down 
to  the  tea-table:  "Thank  God  for  tea!  What  would 
the  world  do  without  tea  ?  how  did  it  exist  ?  I  am  glad 
I  was  not  born  before  tea.  I  can  drink  any  quantity 
when  I  have  not  tasted  wine ;  otherwise  I  am  haunted 
by  blue-devils  by  day,  and  dragons  by  night.  If  you 
want  to  improve  your  understanding,  drink  coffee.  Sir 
James  Mackintosh  used  to  say,  he  believed  the  difference 
between  one  man  and  another  was  produced  by  the 
quantity  of  coffee  he  drank.'' 

"  O'Connell  presented  me  to  the  Irish  members  as  the 
powerful  and  entertaining  advocate  of  the  Irish  Catholic 
claims." 

Talking  of  the  ardor  of  country  gentlemen  for  preserv 
ing  game  :  "I  believe  -  —  would  die  for  his  game.  He 
VOL.  L— P 


338  MEMOIR  OF  THE    REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

is  truly  a  pheasant-minded  man ;  he  revenged  himself 
upon  me  by  telling  all  the  Joe  Millers  he  could  find  as 
my  jokes." 

"  Oh,  the  Dean  of deserves  to  be  preached  to 

death  by  wild  curates." 

"I  am  old,  but  I  certainly  have  not  that  sign  of  old 
age,  extolling  the  past  at  the  expense  of  the  present. 
On  the  contrary,  the  progress  of  the  world  in  the  last 
fifty  years  almost  takes  my  breath  away.  Steam  and 
electricity  have  advanced  it  beyond  the  dreams  of  the 
wildest  visionary  two  hundred  years  ago.  By-the-by, 
on  the  subject  of  steam,  I  have  a  most  curious  letter, 
which  I  extracted  from  a  periodical,  and  will  show  you ; 
it  struck  me  as  so  interesting,  that  I  made  inquiries  about 
it  from  the  author  of  the  publication,  and  have  some  rea 
son  to  believe  it  is  authentic." 

Letter  of  Marion  de  Lorme  to  the  Marquis  de  Cinq- 
Mars. 

"PARIS,  February,  1641. 

"  MY  DEAR  EFFIART, 

"  While  you  are  forgetting  me  at  Narbonne,  and  giv 
ing  yourself  up  to  the  pleasures  of  the  Court  and  the 
delight  of  thwarting  M.  le  Cardinal  de  Richelieu,  I,  ac 
cording  to  your  express  desire,  am  doing  the  honors  of 
Paris  to  your  English  lord  the  Marquis  of  Worcester ; 
and  I  carry  him  about,  or  rather  he  carries  me,  from 
curiosity  to  curiosity,  choosing  always  the  most  grave 
and  serious,  speaking  little,  listening  with  extreme  atten 
tion,  and  fixing  on  those  whom  he  interrogates  two  large 
blue  eyes,  which  seem  to  pierce  to  the  very  centre  of 
their  thoughts.  He  is  remarkable  for  never  being  satis 
fied  with  any  explanations  which  are  given  him,  and  he 
never  sees  things  in  the  light  in  which  they  are  shown 
to  him ;  you  may  judge  of  this  by  a  visit  we  made  to- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  339 

gether  to  Bicetre,  where  he  imagined  he  had  discovered 
a  genius  in  a  madman. 

"  If  this  madman  had  not  been  actually  raving,  I 
verily  believe  your  Marquis  would  have  entreated  his 
liberty,  and  have  carried  him  off  to  London,  in  order 
to  hear  his  extravagances  from  morning  till  night,  at 
his  ease.  We  were  crossing  the  court  of  the  mad 
house,  and  I,  more  dead  than  alive  with  fright,  kept 
close  to  my  companion's  side,  when  a  frightful  face  ap 
peared  behind  some  immense  bars,  and  a  hoarse  voice 
exclaimed,  '  I  am  not  mad !  I  am  not  mad !  I  have 
made  a  discovery  which  would  enrich  the  country  that 
adopted  it.'  4  What  has  he  discovered  ?'  asked  our 
guide.  'Oh!'  he  answered,  shrugging  his  shoulders, 
'  something  trifling  enough  :  you  would  never  guess  it ; 
it  is  the  use  of  the  steam  of  boiling  water.'  I  began 
to  laugh.  4  This  man,'  continued  the  keeper,  '  is  named 
Salomon  de  Caus ;  he  came  from  Normandy  four  years 
ago,  to  present  to  the  King  a  statement  of  the  won 
derful  effects  that  might  be  produced  from  his  inven 
tion.  To  listen  to  him,  you  would  imagine  that  with 
steam  you  could  navigate  ships,  move  carriages ;  in 
fact,  there  is  no  end  to  the  miracles  which,  he  insists 
upon  it,  could  be  performed.  The  Cardinal  sent  the 
madman  away  without  listening  to  him.  Salomon  de 
Caus,  far  from  being  discouraged,  followed  the  Cardi 
nal  wherever  he  went  with  the  most  determined  per 
severance,  who,  tired  of  finding  him  forever  in  his  path, 
and  annoyed  at  his  folly,  shut  him  up  in  Bicetre,  where 
he  has  now  been  for  three  years  and  a  half,  and  where, 
as  you  hear,  he  calls  out  to  every  visitor  that  he  is  not 
mad,  but  that  he  has  made  a  valuable  discovery.  He  has 
even  written  a  book  on  the  subject,  which  I  have  here.'* 

*  This  book  is  entitled,  "Les  liaisons  des  Forces  mouvantes,  avec 
diverses  machines  tant  utiles  que  puissantes."  (Pub.  1615,  in  folio.) 


840  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"Lord  Worcester,  who  had  listened  to  this  account 
with  much  interest,  after  reflecting  a  time,  asked  for 
the  book,  of  which,  after  having  read  several  pages,  he 
said,  *  This  man  is  not  mad ;  in  my  country,  instead  of 
shutting  him  up,  he  would  have  been  rewarded.  Take 
me  to  him,  for  I  should  like  to  ask  him  some  ques 
tions.'  He  was  accordingly  conducted  to  his  cell ;  but, 
after  a  time,  he  came  back  sad  and  thoughtful.  '  He  is 
indeed  mad  now,'  said  he ;  '  misfortune  and  captivity 
have  alienated  his  reason ;  but  it  is  you  who  have  to 
answer  for  his  madness ;  when  you  cast  him  into  that 
cell,  you  confined  the  greatest  genius  of  the  age.'  After 
this  we  went  away,  and  since  that  time  he  has  done  no 
thing  but  talk  of  Salomon  de  Caus." 

"  I  destroy,  on  principle,  all  letters  to  me,  but  I  have 
no  secrets  myself.  I  should  not  care  if  almost  every 
word  I  have  written  were  published  at  Charing  Cross.  I 
live  with  open  windows." 

"TKs  is  a  noble  description  of  God's  omnipresence 
(turning  over  the  leaves  of  a  book),  '  His  centre  is  every 
where,  his  circumference  is  nowhere."1 

Talking  of  New- Year's  Day  and  Christmas  :  "  No, 
the  returns  of  those  fixed  periods  always  make  me  mel 
ancholy.  I  am  glad  when  we  have  fairly  turned  the 
corner,  and  started  afresh.  I  feel,  like  my  friend  Mack 
intosh,  'there  is  another  child  of  Time  lost,'  as  the  year 
departs. 

"What  a  loss  you  had  in  not  knowing  Mackintosh! 
how  was  it?  .  .  .  .  Yes,  his  manner  was  cold;  his 
skake  of  the  hand  came  under  the  genus  '  mortmain ;' 
but  his  heart  was  overflowing  with  benevolence.  I  like 
that  simile  I  made  on  him  in  my  letter,  of  '  a  great  ship 
cutting  its  cable ;'  it  is  fine,  and  it  well  described  Mack 
intosh.  His  chief  foible  was  indiscriminate  praise.  I 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  341 

amused  myself  the  other  day,"  said  he,  laughing,  "in 
writing  a  termination  of  a  speecli  for  Irim ;  would  you 
like  to  hear  it  ?  I  will  read  it  to  you : 

"'It  is  impossible  to  conclude  these  observations 
without  expressing  the  obligations  I  am  under  to  a  per 
son  in  a  much  more  humble  scene  of  life — I  mean,  sir, 
the  hackney-coachman  by  whom  I  have  been  driven  to 
this  meeting.  To  pass  safely  through  the  streets  of  a 
crowded  metropolis  must  require,  on  the  part  of  the 
driver,  no  common  assemblage  of  qualities.  He  must 
have  caution  without  timidity,  activity  without  precipi 
tation,  and  courage  without  rashness  ;  he  must  have  a 
clear  perception  of  his  object,  and  a  dexterous  use  of 
his  means.  I  can  safely  say  of  the  individual  in  ques 
tion,  that,  for  a  moderate  reward,  he  has  displayed  un 
wearied  skill ;  and  to  him  I  shall  never  forget  that  I  owe 
unfractured  integrity  of  limb,  exemption  from  pain,  and 
perhaps  prolongation  of  existence. 

"  'Nor  can  I  pass  over  the  encouraging  cheerfulness 
with  which  I  was  received  by  the  waiter,  nor  tb^  useful 
blaze  of  light  communicated  by  the  link-boys,  as  I  de 
scended  from  the  carriage.  It  was  with  no  common 
pleasure  that  I  remarked  in  these  men,  not  the  mer 
cenary  bustle  of  venal  service,  but  the  genuine  effusions 
of  untutored  benevolence  ;  not  the  rapacity  of  subordi 
nate  agency,  but  the  alacrity  of  humble  friendship. 
What  may  not  be  said  of  a  country  where  all  the  little 
accidents  of  life  bring  forth  the  hidden  qualities  of  the 
heart — where  her  vehicles  arc  driven,  her  streets  illu 
mined,  and  her  bells  answered,  by  men  teeming  with  all 
the  refinements  of  civilized  life  ? 

"  '  I  can  not  conclude,  sir,  without  thanking  you  for 
the  very  clear  and  distinct  manner  in  which  you  have 
announced  the  proposition  on  which  we  are  to  vote.  It 
is  but  common  justice  to  add,  that  public  assemblies 


342  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH 

rarely  witness  articulation  so  perfect,  language  so  select, 
and  a  manner  so  eminently  remarkable  for  every  thing 
that  is  kind,  impartial,  and  just.'  "* 


At  ten  we  always  went  down  stairs  to  prayers,  in  the 
library.  Immediately  after,  if  we  were  alone,  appeared 
the  "farmer"  at  the  door,  lantern  in  hand.  "David, 
bring  me  my  coat  and  stick;"  and  off  he  set  with 
him,  summer  and  winter,  to  visit  his  horses,  and  ,see 
that  they  were  all  well  fed,  and  comfortable  in  their  re 
gions  for  the  night.  He  kept  up  this  custom  all  his  life. 

On  returning  to  the  drawing-room,  he  usually  asked 
for  a  little  music.  "  If  I  were  to  begin  life  again,  I 
would  devote  much  time  to  music.  All  musical  people 
seem  to  me  happy;  it  is  the  most  engrossing  pursuit; 
almost  the  only  innocent  and  unpunished  passion. 

"  Never  give  way  to  melancholy  :  nothing  encroaches 
more ;  I  fight  against  it  vigorously.!  One  great  rem 
edy  is,  to  take  short  views  of  life.  Are  you  happy  now  ? 
Are  you  likely  to  remain  so  till  this  evening?  or  next 
week  ?  or  next  month  ?  or  next  year  ?  Then  why  de 
stroy  present  happiness  by  a  distant  misery,  which  may 
never  come  at  all,  or  you  may  never  live  to  see  it  ?  for 
every  substantial  grief  has  twenty  shadows,  and  most  of 
them  shadows  of  your  own  making." 

Speaking  of :  "  It  was  a  beautiful  old  age ;  how 

fine  those  lines  of  Waller  are — 

'  The  soul's  dark  cottage,  batter'd  and  decay'd, 
Let  in  new  lights  through  chinks  that  Time  has  made !' " 

*  This  trifling  critique  on  his  old  friend,  good-humored  as  it  is,  I 
should  not  have  given  without  the  permission  of  his  family,  who  knew 
that  Sir  James,  had  he  seen  it,  would  have  been  the  first  to  smile 
at  it.  I  ought  to  add,  that  the  same  kind  indulgence  has  been  granted 
me  wherever  I  have  ventured  on  any  anecdote  that  I  feared  might  give 
pain. 

t  Yet  I  see,  in  his  note-book — "  I  wish  I  were  of  a  more  sanguine 
temperament ;  I  always  anticipate  the  worst." 


MEMOIli    OF   THE    KEY.  SYDNEY    SMITH.  34;J 

u  Yes  ;  -  —  was  merry,  not  wise.  You  know,  a  man 
of  small  understanding  is  merry  where  he  can,  not  where 
he  should.  Lightning  must,  I  think,  "be  the  wit  of 
hearen." 

Mr,  P —  -  said  to  him,  "  I  always  write  best  with  an 
amanuensis."  "Oh!  but  arc  you  quite  sure  he  puts 
down  what  you  dictate,  my  dear  P.  ?" 

Speaking  of  a  Revolutionist :  "  No  man,  I  fear,  can 
effect  great  benefits  for  his  country  without  some  sacri 
fice  of  the  minor  virtues." 

•f  "I  often  think  what  a  different  man  I  might  have 
-  been  if,  like  my  friend  Lord  Holland,  and  others,  I  had 
/  passed  my  life  with  all  that  is  most  worth  seeing  and 
hearing  in  Europe,  instead  of  being  confined  through  the 
greater  part  of  it  to  the  society  of  the  parish-clerk.  I 
always  feel  it  is  combating  with  unequal  weapons ;  but 
I  have  made  a  tolerable  fight  of  it,  nevertheless.  I  am 
rather  an  admirer  of  O'Conncll :  he,  it  can  not  be  denied, 
has  done  a  great  deal  for  Ireland,  and,  on  the  whole,  I 
believe  he  meant  well;  but  'hell,'  as  Johnson  says,  '  is 
paved  with  good  intentions.' '' 

A  little  more  of  such  talk,  intermixed  with  those  brill 
iant  and  amusing  bursts  of  humor  and  attack — which  I 
sec  prettily  compared,  in  one  of  the  printed  sketches  of 
him,  to  "  summer  lightning,  that  never  harmed  the  ob 
ject  illumined  by  its  flash" — and  then  to  bed  ;  and  all 
was  quiet,  and  at  peace,  in  the  little  parsonage. 


I  have  endeavored  here — partly  from  recollection,  part 
ly  from  my  own  and  my  friends'  notes — to  give  some 
faint  idea  of  the  style  of  my  father's  conversation  and  his 
manner  of  living  with  his  family  and  friends.  I  flatter 
myself,  by  those  who  knew  him  intimately,  it  will  not  be 
thought  an  unfaithful  copy.  But,  alas !  without  the  look, 
the  voice,  the  manner,  the  laugh,  the  thousand  little  del- 


344  MEMOIR   OF   THE    KEY.  SYDNEY    SMITH. 

icate  touches,  the  quick  repartee,  the  connecting  links 
from  which  these  observations  sprang — without  the  mas 
ter-spirit's  voice  to  animate  the  whole — without  all  this, 
I  feel  it  is  but  a  body  without  a  soul.  Yet,  body  as  it 
is,  to  me  it  is  most  precious,  as  all  that  now  remains  to 
me  of  my  father ;  and  I  would  fain  believe  there  are  a 
few  still  alive  who  will  accept  this  relic  of  a  great  man 
gone,  with  gratitude — will  live  with  him  again  in  these 
pages — will  be  reminded,  by  them,  of  him  as  he  was,  a»d 
not  as  I  have  here  imperfectly  attempted  to  describe  him. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

Extract  from  Lady 's  Journal. — Last  Illness. — Comes  to  Town. — 

Dr.  Chambers  called  in. — Anxiety  of  Friends  for  his  Recovery. — 
Meeting  of  Brothers. — Living  to  poor  Clergyman. — Death  of  Sydney 
Smith. — Death  of  his  eldest  Brother. 

I  HATE  but  little  more  to  add;  my  (to  me)  sad  tale 
is  nearly  told ;  but  I  will  here  insert  some  extracts  from 
a  journal  of  a  dear  Scotch  friend,  who  spent  a  month  in 
his  house,  which,  though  never  meant  to  see  the  light, 
have  most  kindly  been  given  to  me  at  my  request ;  and 
which  I  feel  to  be  valuable,  not  only  because  they  are 
nearly  the  last  notes  I  have  of  him  (being  taken  the  year 
before  his  death),  but  because  they  also,  on  many  points, 
confirm,  from  notes  taken  at  the  moment,  the  traits  I 
have  given  of  him  from  mere  recollection. 

"  'Do  you  not  like  the  country?'  'I  like  London  a 
great  deal  better ;  the  study  of  men  and  women,  better 
than  trees  and  grass.' 

"  '  Oh !  some  men  are  born  happy.  I  often  think, 
what  a  fortunate  circumstance  it  was  for  me,  in  going  to 
Edinburgh  (quite  a  stranger),  to  fall  at  once  into  inti 
macy  with  such  remarkable  men  as  Jeffrey  and  the  rest.' 
'  How  was  it ?'  'I  went  to  Edinburgh  with  a  pupil — I 
had  nothing  else.  Then  the  Edinburgh  Review — what 
a  machine  that  has  been!' 

"  'I  love  Jeffrey  very  dearly;'  and,  speaking  of  his 
knowledge  of  all  subjects,  and  his  review  of  Madame  de 
Stae'l :  'I  used  to  say  then  that  the  nearest  thing  Jeffrey 


Ji4G  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITM. 

had  ever  seen  to  a  *ine  Parisian  lady  was  John  Playfair.' 
How  we  laughed  at  this ! 

"  '  Miss  Edge  worth  was  delightful — so  clever  and  sen 
sible  !  She  does  not  say  witty  things,  but  there  is  such 
a  perfume  of  wit  runs  through  all  her  conversation  as 
makes  it  very  brilliant.' 

"  We  walked  home  after  church ;  he  paid  visits  to  the 
cottagers,  speaking  to  them  frankly  and  cheerily,  or 
scolding  them  for  not  coming  to  tell  him  they  were  bet 
ter,  or  that  they  wanted  more  medicine. 

"  'Nobody'  (says  a  sketch  in  the  '  Spectator,'  written 
by  some  friend)  '  too  obscure  for  Sidney  to  put  in  good- 
humor  with  themselves.'  Nay,  I  have  seen  him  brighten 
the  countenance  of  his  poor  parishioner  for  the  day,  by  a 
captivating  phrase  or  two,  when  he  met  them,  or  visited 
their  cottages.  On  one  occasion,  his  parish-clerk  being 
laid  up  with  a  broken  shin,  Sydney  called  to  inquire. 
'I'm  gettin  round,  your  honor,  but  I  sha'n't  be  fit  for 
duty  on  Sunday. '  '  Sorry  for  that,  Lovelace ;  indeed, 
we  shall  miss  you  at  the  singing.'  Then,  turning  to  me, 
'  You  can't  think  what  a  good  hand  Lovelace  is  at  a 
psalm  ;  you  should  hear  him  lead  off  the  Old  Hundredth.' 
At  which  the  old  clerk's  eyes  fairly  glistened,  and  he 
stammered  out,  '  Oh !  your  honor's  only  saying  that  to 
cheer  me  up  a  bit.' 

"  Sometimes  lie  had  a  good  report  to  give  of  an  absent 
son  or  daughter,  whom  he  had  seen  in  London,  and  ob 
tained  a  place  for.  He  employed  many  old  people  about 
the  garden,  and  was  anxious  that  every  body  near  him 
should  be  comfortable.  'Have  you  seen  my  doctor's 
shop?  Come,  I'll  show  it  you.'  I  expressed  my  won 
der.  '  Yes,  life  is  a  difficult  thing ;  here's  every  thing 
prepared — stomach- warmers,  sore-throat  collars,  etc.  I 
studied  medicine,  and  went  through  the  hospitals  at  Edin 
burgh  ;  I  know  a  good  deal.  I  often  regret  that  medical 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  347 

men  will  not  talk  more  of  their  profession.  It  is  a  very 
interesting  subject  to  every  one,  at  least  a  little  of  it ; 
but  I  never  can  get  any  of  them  to  speak — they  look 
quite  offended.' 

"•  The  poor  people  and  the  servants  are  very  fond  of 
him  ;  he  does  them  so  much  good,  and  gives  them  clothes, 
books,  medicines.  They  look  to  him  for  every  thing, 
and  they  like  his  free  speaking  to  them ;  he  is  so  merry 
and  frank :  so  my  maid  tells  me. 

"  He  sometimes  read  aloud  to  Mrs.  Sydney  and  me  in 
the  evening,  when  any  thing  struck  him — such  as  parts 
of  Liebig — so  clearly  and  distinctly,  observing  shortly  on 
parts  as  he  read,  and  listening  good-naturedly  to  our  ob 
servations.  We  had  each  our  arm-chair,  lamp,  and  book 
in  the  evening,  and  not  much  conversation  when  alone. 
Occasionally  he  would  sit  with  an  air  of  profound  medi 
tation,  and  would  begin  as  thus :  fc  Forgive  us  our  tres 
passes,  as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass  against  us. 
That  is  new ;  that  is  peculiar  to  the  Christian  religion.' 
Or  he  would  repeat  the  sublime  prayers  for  the  queen, 
in  his  grand  tones,  to  mark  their  fine  composition. 

"  '  1  dine  sometimes  at  -  — ,  and  the  head  of  the 
bank  sits  at  the  foot  of  the  table,  looking  so  attentive, 
and  bowing  so  obsequiously  ;  and  when  I  talk,  a  tort  et 
a  travers,  as  I  am  apt  to  do,  I  see  by  his  expression 
that  he  says  to  himself,  "  There  is  a  man  I  would  not 
lend  money  to  at  fifteen  per  cent.  ;  he's  a  rash  man ;  he 
would  buy  bad  Exchequer  bills ;  he  is  not  to  be  trust 
ed/'  He  little  knows  me.'  'That  is  very  true,'  said 
Mrs.  Sydney ;  '  people  are  not  aware  that  Sydney,  with 
all  his  mirth,  is  one  of  the  most  cautious,  prudent  men 
that  ever  existed;  he  is  always  looking  forward,  and 
providing  against  what  may  happen.'  'Yes,  I  always 
expect  the  worst ;  but  it  has  a  good  effect,  for  it  makes 
me  cautious.' 


348  MEMOIR  OF   THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

"  'When  I  went  to  Edinburgh  I  had  two  introduc 
tions,  to  Sir  William  Forbes  and  Professor  -  — .  He 
was  clerk  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  kirk.  He 
said  to  me  one  day  after  dinner,  "D — n  the  solemn 
league  and  covenant !  it  has  spoiled  the  longs  and  shorts 
in  Scotland.'" 

"  '  I  like  Dr.  Ferguson  much.  William  Clerk  is  an 
original  man  ;  how  rare  it  is  to  meet  an  original  man ! ' 

"  'I  wish  sometimes  that  I  were  a  Scotchman,  to  have 
people  care  about  me  so  much.' 

"  i  The  Americans,  I  see,  call  me  a  Minor  Canon. 
They  are  abusing  me  dreadfully  to-day :  they  call  me 
Xantippe  ;  they  might  at  least  have  known  my  sex  :  and 
they  say  I  am  eighty-four.  I  don't  know  how  it  is,' 
said  he,  laughing,  'but  every  body  who  behaves  ill  to 
me  is  sure  to  come  to  mischief  before  the  year's  out.  I 
am  not  angry  with  them ;  I  only  say,  I  pity  you,  you 
are  sure  to  suffer.' 

"  '  Were  you  remarkable  as  a  boy,  Mr.  Smith  ?'  '  Yes, 
madam,  I  was  a  remarkably  fat  boy.  I  was  at  one 
time  to  have  been  a  supercargo  to  China,  to  Hong  Kong.' 

"  '  Here  is  a  hymn-book  that  an  old  man  of  eighty- 
four  sends  me,  he  says,  because  of  his  pleasure  in  hear 
ing  of  my  giving  the  living  of  Edmonton  to  Tate's  son. 
I  should  have  been  better  pleased  if  it  had  not  cost  me 
a  shilling.'  'Oh!'  said  Mrs.  Sydney,  'I  would  will 
ingly  have  given  a  guinea  for  it.' 

"  '  Here  is  an  anonymous  letter  from  some  one  who 
has  a  quantity  of  Mississippi  bonds,  asking  me  what  he 
should  do  with  them  ?  How  can  I  tell  ?  they  arc  not 
worth  sixpence.' 

"  That  month  every  post  brought  letters  to  him,  ei-^ 
ther  of  complaint  of  the  Americans,  of  the  income-tax, 
or  of  some  evil,  which  the  writers  (strangers)  entreated 
Mr.  Smith  to  write  against,  and  to  help  them  to  rem- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  349 

edy.  There  were  also  many  feeling  letters  on  the  sub 
ject  of  his  generosity  to  the  family  of  Canon  Tate.  He 
could  not  conceive  why  the  world  praised  him  so  much 
for  that ;  he  always  spoke  so  simply  about  it,  that  it 
showed  me  how  natural  it  was  to  his  disposition  to  be 
kind  and  generous.  He  was  evidently  pleased  by  some 
of  the  newspapers'  clever  notices  of  his  Letters  to  Amer 
ica.  '  Well,  they  lay  it  on  pretty  thick  to-day ;  where 
is  Mrs.  Sydney?'  He  was  perpetually  coming  to  her 
with  something  for  her  sympathy  or  consultation ;  and 
richly  did  she  deserve  that  happiness,  from  her  devoted 
love  and  admiration.  One  day  I  pointed  out  an  article 
in  the  'Times,'  of  one  who  was  reckoned  the  Sydney 
Smith  of  Spain  :  it  amused  him. 

"  '  I  had  once  a  mind  to  write  a  letter  to  young  bish 
ops  ;  bishops  I  have  known  speak  to  their  inferior  clergy 
worse  than  they  do  to  their  footmen.'  'Why  do  you 
not,  Mr.  Smith  ?'  '  Oh,  it  would  be  a  life  of  contention ; 
I  am  too  old  to  bear  a  life  of  contention  now.' 

"  '  There  is  a  specimen  of  national  honesty!  read  that 
marked  with  red  ink.'  'Do  you  mean  a  joke?'  '!No, 
no.'  'Do  give  me  a  sign.'  'Well,  I'll  sometimes  give 
you  a  sign  when  there  is  no  joke,  and  you'll  be  sure  to 
laugh.  Frere  used  to  tread  on  a  man's  toes  to  make 
him  think  he  said  something  wrong.  .  .  .  When  I  was 
in  Edinburgh,  I  said  to  a  lady,  speaking  of  the  Dean  of 
Faculty,  that  we  thought  our  Deans  in  England  had  no 
faculties.  She  said,  "Well,  I  call  that  a  very  good 
joko!"' 

"  '  I  hope  somebody  will  tell  me  when  I  grow  old  and 
prosy ;  though  I  am  not  likely  to  get  very  prosy,  I'm 
in  general  so  short.'  'Yes,  too  short,  Mr.  Smith.' 

"  Christmas-day  was  one  rich  in  recollections.  The 
weather  was  fine.  I  looked  out,  and  saw  the  maid  Ma 
ria  gravely  and  busily  tying  on  oranges  to  the  branches 


350  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

of  the  bay-trees,  that  were  planted  in  large  green  tubs 
round  the  lawn.  The  effect  was  gay  and  sunny,  and 
pleased  him  mightily.  The  sermon  that  day  was  a  glo 
rious  one — on  Christmas,  the  contrast  of  the  world  be 
fore  the  blessed  era,  and  the  sudden  effect  after — grati 
tude,  immortal  life,  etc.  I  hope  the  sermon  is  pre 
served.  I  can  not  give  a  good  account  of  all  that  was 
interesting  at  that  time — of  the  children's  feast,  the 
schools,  the  prizes,  the  charities,  etc ;  but  I  remember 
my  admiration  of  the  variety  of  character  which  Mr. 
Smith  displayed  that  day.  From  the  sublime  duties 
of  the  morning,  he  became,  with  the  large  family-party 
assembled  at  dinner,  the  Sydney  Smith  of  London  soci 
ety  ;  and  in  the  evening  he  was  delightful.  '  I  crave 
for  music,  Mrs.  Smith  ;  music  !  music ! '  He  sang,  with 
his  sweet,  rich  voice,  '  A  few  gay  soarings  yet.'  He  im 
itated  an  orchestra  preluding,  talking  French,  telling 
stories,  and  laughing  so  infectiously.  Next  morning  he 
was  merrier  than  ever ;  I  found  the  party  all  at  breakfast, 
waiting  till  I  came,  before  he  would  allow  a  Scotch  cake 
to  be  touched,  which  my  maid  had  prepared  (bad  enough). 
He  had  often  asked  me  to  suggest  some  improvement  to 
his  house,  something  new — (poor  I  could  think  of  no 
thing  new,  but  cakes  made  with  soda  and  buttermilk!) ; 
it  was  this  cake  we  were  all  to  take  the  same  chance  of 
suffering  from,  by  eating  it  together.  '  Let  us  make  a 
tontine  for  the  survivor,'  said  he,  laughing.  It  was 
wonderful  how  he  played  upon  this  cake,  on  me,  and  on 
Scottish  luxuries  ;  he  fancied  that  I  feared  to  be  too 
comfortable.  '  Oh,  that  easy  couch !  you'll  suffer  for 
that  a  thousand  years  hence,  depend  upon  it.' 

"  '  Want  of  money  is  a  great  evil :  I  declare,  every 
guinea  I  have  gained  I  have  been  the  happier.  I  was 
very  poor  till  I  was  appointed  to  St.  Paul's ;  that  made 
inc.  easy,  and  then  my  brother  Conrtenay's  death  made 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  351 

me  rich.'  An  old  friend  congratulating  him  on  his  ap 
pointment  to  St.  Paul's :  '  Why,  I  think  it  makes  me 
most  happy  to  feel  I  can  now  keep  a  carriage  and  horses 
for  her,  in  her  old  age  (pointing  to  Mrs.  Sydney),  which 
I  could  not  have  done  before.' 

"  '  I  once  rode  on  a  turtle  iive  feet  along,  supported 
by  two  people  :  piety  trampling  luxury  underfoot !  Do 
you  take  it  ?' 

"  The  first  sermon  I  heard  in  Combe  Florey  church 
was  certainly  meant  for  my  good :  '  Cast  your  care  upon 
God,  for  he  careth  for  you.'  It  was  so  comforting  and 
encouraging !  With  what  delight  did  I  look  and  listen, 
in  that  church,  to  the  grand  form  and  powerful  counte 
nance,  noble  and  melodious  voice  !  In  reading  the  Les 
sons  and  Psalms,  he  read  so  as  almost  to  make  a  com 
mentary  on  every  word,  and  the  meaning  came  out  so  rich 
and  deep.  His  sermons  were  not  given  in  St.  Paul's 
with  more  interest  and  effect ;  and  yet  they  were  adapt 
ed  to  the  congregation,  from  their  plain  and  practical 
sense.  Remembering  him  in  St.  Paul's  crowded  cathe 
dral,  and  looking  at  him  in  the  little  village  church, 
filled  with  peasantry,  I  was  pleased  to  see  him  always 
the  same. 

u  I  wish  I  could  convey  the  idea  of  his  appearance  as 
he  sat  in  the  bay-window  of  the  library,  writing.  I  used 
sometimes,  in  walking  past,  to  venture  near,  to  look  at 
him.  There  was  power,  profundity,  and  meaning  in 
his  countenance;  and  he  would  often  take  up  his  pa 
pers  with  an  amused  expression.  I  was  convinced  that 
he  was  a  very  happy  man.  I  often  regretted  that  I  had 
no  spirits  or  courage  to  speak  to  him,  or  to  join  him  in 
his«  walks  in  the  garden,  but  I  have  much  respect  for 
the  silence  of  a  great  man. 

"  These  memorandums  seem  very  simple,  but  I  wish 
ed  to  be  able  to  recall  to  myself  the  looks  and  tones  of 


352  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH. 

one  whom  I  had  been  accustomed  to  admire  through 
much  of  my  life ;  and  I  feel,  when  writing  for  myself ] 
that  my  impressions  are  conveyed. 

"  On  New- Year's  Day,  we  were  walking  in  the  gar 
den  ;  he  discovered  a  crocus,  which  had  burst  through 
the  frozen  earth;  he  stopped  suddenly,  gazed  at  it  si 
lently  for  a  few  seconds,  and,  touching  it  with  his  staff, 
pronounced  solemnly,  '  The  resurrection  of  the  world ! ' " 

To  this  pretty,  simple  journal  I  have  little  to  add. 
Yet  how  different  are  the  minds  of  men !  An  apple  fell 
to  the  ground,  and  Sir  Isaac  Newton  saw  in  it  one  of 
the  great  laws  of  nature.  How  many  men  would  have 
passed  that  little  crocus,  and  seen  it  only  a  flower  :  while 
to  my  father's  mind  (not  quite  unworthy  of  this  great 
ancestor)  it  brought  at  one  glance  to  his  thoughts  all 
the  wonderful  effects  the  breath  of  life,  which  had  gone 
forth,  was  producing  in  every  portion  of  the  world,  for 
man's  benefit  now,  and  was  to  produce  on  man  himself 
in  a  world  to  come. 

He  saw  but  one  resurrection  upon  earth  more.  In 
the  spring  he  went  up  to  London,  as  usual,  for  a  short 
time  ;  and  while  there,  met,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Van  de 
Weyer,  a  literary  man  of  some  eminence  who  afterward 
published  a  sketch  of  him  in  the  "Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes  ;"  in  which  he  introduced  a  short  and  humorous 
answer  of  my  father's  to  him,  not  however  intended  for 
publication.  My  mother  wishing  to  know  some  particu 
lars  of  this  from  Mr.  Van  de  Weyer,  after  my  father's 
death,  he  had  the  kindness,  amidst  all  the  hurry  of  a  sud 
den  departure  for  Germany,  to  write  out  the  following 
account  of  the  transaction  for  her,  which  he  has  given 
me  permission  to  insert. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  353 

June,  1852. 

"MY  DEAR  MRS.  SYDNEY  SMITH, 

"I  hasten,  before  our  departure  for  Germany,  to  in 
close,  according  to  your  wishes,  several  extracts  from  the 
letters  which  my  poor  friend  Eugene  Kobin  wrote  to  me 
on  the  subject  of  the  article  published  by  him  in  the 
'Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.' 

"In  1844,  Eugene  Robin,  who  had  left  Brussels, 
where  lie  had  been  educated,  and  had,  at  a  very  early 
age,  distinguished  himself,  both  as  a  poet  and  a  critic, 
spent  a  few  days  with  us  in  London;  and,  as  he  was 
anxious  to  know  the  best  and  most  original  writers  of 
England,  we  had  long  conversations  together  on  the 
works  of  Mr.  Sydney  Smith,  which  I  lent  him,  and  for 
which  he  soon  felt  and  expressed  a  great  admiration.  On 
the  22d  of  April,  I  received  from  him  the  following  letter : 

"  '  Vous  vous  souvenez  peut-etre  de  m'avoir  parle  de 
la  collection  des  ecrits  de  Jeffrey  et  de  Sydney  Smith 
sur  lesquels  il  y  avait  de  bons  articles  a  faire  pour  la 
' '  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. "  Le  ' 'Jeffrey"  a  ete  traite  par 
M.  Forcade,  dans  la  derniere  livraison  ;  mais  le  "  Sydney 
Smith"  vient  de  m'echoir  en  partagc.  J'ai  demande  le 
livre  a  Londres :  mais  je  voudrais  bien,  comme  vous  con- 
naissez  intimement  Pauteur,  quo  vous  eussiez  la  bonte, 
si  vos  loisirs  vous  le  pcrmettcnt,  de  me  dire  si  ce  sont  la 
reellement  tous  ses  ouvrages ;  de  me  donner  (c'est  bien 
indiscret  de  vous  demander  ces  choses-la)  sur  1'homme  et 
sur  1'ecrivain  de  ces  details  qu'avec  votre  esprit  d'obser- 
vation,  vous  seul  pouvez  bien  connaitre.  Us  ajouteraient 
singulierement  de  prix  a  un  travail  fait  avec  conscience. 
J'ai  le  pain  de  mon  article ;  j 'attends  de  vous  le  set. 
Pourquoi  m'avez-vous  encourage  a  ne  voir  en  vous  que 
1'homme  de  lettres  bienveillant  pour  scs  jcunes  confreres  ? 
Je  nc  vous  importunerais  pas  de  la  sorte.' 

"I  immediately  answered  that  I  very  much  regretted 


354  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

not  to  be  able  to  comply  with  his  request,  my  very  inti 
macy  with  Mr.  Sydney  Smith  preventing  me,  without  his 
consent,  from  sending  for  a  Review  any  biographical  an 
ecdotes  or  critical  observations  on  his  life  and  writings ; 
but  I  advised  M.  Robin  to  write  himself  to  Mr.  S.  Smith, 
and  I  offered  to  deliver  his  letter,  and  to  explain  both  his 
reasons  for  doing  so,  and  my  reasons  for  not  acceding  to 
his  demand,  and  to  obtain  an  answer  for  him.  M.  Robin 
sent  me  a  charming  letter  (I  regret  that  I  have  not  kept 
a  copy  of  it)  for  Mr.  Sydney  Smith,  who  kindly  approved 
of  what  I  had  said  and  done,  and  intrusted  to  my  care 
an  answer  to  Eugene  Robin's  letter.* 

"  More  than  two  months  elapsed  before  Eugene  Robin 
acknowledged  the  receipt  of  this  letter  to  me  in  the  fol 
lowing  words : 

"  '  PARIS,  k  3  Sept.,  1844. 

"  '  Vous  avez  bien  voulu  m'envoyer  la  lettre  amicale 
et  toujours  spirituelle  de  votre  ami  le  Reverend  Sydney 
Smith.  Elle  m'a  grandement  encourage  a  faire  Particle 
dont  je  vous  avais  parle ;  maintenant,  ce  travail  est  fini 
depuis  plus  de  quinze  jours ;  il  n'y  manque  plus  quo 
quelques  petits  details  biographiques,  qui,  transmis  par 
vous,  selon  le  desir  exprime  par  M.  Sydney  Smith,  rele- 
veraient  singuliereinent  mon  recit  et  ma  critique.  Si  vous 
vouliez  faire  un  effort  en  faveur  de  I'aimable  Chanoine  de 
Saint-Paul,  que  ne  vous  devrais-je  pas  ?' 

"  I  have  not  kept  a  copy  of  my  answer  to  him,  the 
substance  of  which  was  communicated  to  Mr.  Sydney 
Smith.  The  article  appeared  soon  after,  and  Mr.  Syd 
ney  Smith  was  informed  of  its  publication  by  M.  Robin. 
This  letter  was  not  sent  through  me  :  I  heard  of  it  by 
the  two  following  notes  from  Mr.  Sydney  Smith : 

*  The  letter,  having  been  already  published,  is  not  given  here. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  355 

"  «  October  21,  1844. 

"  'You  may  remember  I  wrote  through  you  to  Eu 
gene  Robin,  giving,  at  his  request,  some  account  of  my 
self.  I  have  received  a  letter  from  him,  stating  that  the 
Review  is  published,  and  that  he  has  quoted  a  part  of  my 
letter.  I  confess  this  rather  alarms  me.  Will  it  be  put 
ting  you  to  an  inconvenience  if  I  beg  the  loan  of  the  Re 
view  for  two  or  three  hours  ?  I  will  deviate  from  my 
usual  custom,  and  return  it  punctually.' 

"  «  October  24. 

"  '  I  have  received  the  Review  by  post,  so  I  will  not 
trouble  you  for  yours. 

"'Eugene  has  said  more  about  me  than  I  deserve. 
He  is  of  himself  a  little  long  ;  but  I  am  very  much  pleased 
and  flattered  by  the  approbation  of  so  clever  a  man. 

"  '  He  had  better  not  have  quoted  my  letter  ;  but  there 
is  no  great  harm.  Yours,  SYDNEY  SMITH.' 

"  We  leave  to-morrow.  Believe  me,  my  dear  Mrs. 
Sydney  Smith,  yours  very  faithfully, 

"  SYLVAIX  VAN  DE  WEZETC." 

• 

Here,  though  slightly  anticipating  events,  I  shall  insert 
two  most  touching  letters  from  his  friend  Lord  Jeffrey — 
the  one  on  the  occasion  of  his  long,  last  illness,  and  the 
other  on  receiving  the  fragment  011  the  Irish  Church,  after 
my  father's  death.  And  I  give  them  with  the  more 
pleasure,  as  they  not  only  furnish  fresh  proof  of  the  ten 
derness  and  kindness  of  Lord  Jeffrey's  nature,  but  afford 
ample  testimony  to  the  devotion  and  admiration  he  bore 
my  father,  and  which  my  father's  deep  love  for  him  so 
fully  deserved.  To  my  regret,  this  has  been  almost 
passed  over,  or  barely  alluded  to,  in  the  Life  lately  pub 
lished  of  Lord  Jeffrey. 


35C  MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEY.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 


"EDINBURGH,  Feb.  1CM,  1845. 

DEAE  SABA, 

"  I  do  not  know  when  I  have  felt  more  moved  and  de 
lighted,  than  when  Professor  Pillans  came  into  my  room 
yesterday  with  a  short  letter  from  our  beloved  Sydney 
(but  in  his  wife's  handwriting),  cheerfully  written ;  and 
saying,  among  other  things,  and  in  substance,  that  he 
'  looked  forward  to  his  recovery,  and  at  all  events  was 
making  very  valuable  progress  :'  I  think  those  were  the 
words.  I  need  not  tell  you  how  sad  we  have  all  been 
about  him,  nor  what  a  gloom  the  accounts  we  have  lately 
received  have  thrown  over  the  circle  of  his  ancient  friends. 
While  that  lasted,  I  for  one  at  least  had  not  courage  to 
distress  you  by  any  inquiry ;  but  this  letter  has  excited 
a  less  painful  anxiety,  and  I  hope  you  will  forgive  me 
for  the  trouble  it  leads  me  to  give  you.  You  can  not  over 
estimate  the  interest  I  take  in  the  oldest  and  truest  of 
my  remaining  friends  ;  and  I  believe  I  may  say  the  same 
of  Murray.  Do  then,  my  clear  child,  let  us  know  whether 
we  may  not  hope  again. 

"And  believe  me  always  affectionately  yours, 

"F.  JEFFREY." 

HAILEYBURY  COLLEGE,  HERTFORD,  April  21,  1845. 
"  MY  VERY  DEAR  SABA, 

"  I  have  felt  several  times  in  the  last  six  weeks  that 
I  ought  to  have  written  to  some  of  you ;  but  in  truth,  my 
dear  child,  I  had  not  the  courage ;  and  to-day  it  is  not 
so  much  because  I  have  the  courage,  as  because  I  can 
not  help  it. 

"That  startling  and  matchless  Fragment  was  laid 
upon  my  table  this  morning ;  and  before  I  had  read  out 
the  first  sentence,  the  real  presence  of  my  beloved  and 
incomparable  friend  was  so  brought  before  me,  in  all  his 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY   SMITH.  357 

brilliancy,  benevolence,  and  flashing  decision,  that  I 
seemed  again  to  hear  his  voice  and  read  in  his  eye,  and 
burst  into  an  agony  of  crying.  I  went  through  the  whole 
in  the  same  state  of  feeling :  iny  fancy  kindled,  and  my 
intellect  illumined,  but  my  heart  struck  through  with  the 
sense  of  our  loss,  so  suddenly  arid  so  deeply  impressed 
by  this  seeming  restoration. 

"  I  do  not  think  he  ever  wrote  any  thing  so  good,  and 
I  feel  mournfully  that  there  is  no  one  man  alive  who 
could  have  so  written.  The  eifect,  I  am  persuaded,  will 
be  greater  than  from  any  of  his  other  publications  :  it  is 
a  voice  from  the  grave.  And  it  may  truly  be  said  that 
those  who  will  not  listen  to  it,  would  not  be  persuaded 
though  one  were  to  rise  from  the  dead. 

"  It  relieves  me  to  say  all  this,  and  you  must  forgive 
it.  Heaven  bless  you,  my  dear  child !  With  kind  re 
membrances  from  all  here, 

"Ever  very  affectionately  yours, 

"F.  JEFFREY." 

During  the  summer  of  this  year,  he  received  many 
of  his  old  friends  ;  and,  among  others,  his  eldest  and 
now  only  brother,  Hobert,  Mr.  Hallam,  and  Mr.  Ever- 
\    ett,   the  American  minister.      Of  this  visit  I  find  this 
/   touching  notice  in  a  letter  of  Mr.  Everett's  to  my  moth 
er,  on  receiving  the  volume  of  posthumous  sermons  she 
published : 

"  One  of  them  I  heard  him  preach  in  his  little  village 
church  at  Combe  Florey.  The  reading  of  it  brings  back 
to  me,  in  the  freshest  recollection,  that  delightful  visit 
— one  of  the  brightest  spots  in  my  English  residence — 
though  I  am  painfully  affected  by  considering  that  the 
two  great  men  whose  society  I  then  enjoyed  arc  gone ; 
men  who,  in  their  peculiar  paths  of  eminence,  have  not 
left  their  equals  behind  them."  On  another  occasion 


358  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

Mr.  Everett  says :  "  The  first  remark  that  I  made  to 
myself,  after  listening  to  Mr.  Sydney  Smith's  conversa 
tion,  was,  that  if  he  had  not  been  known  as  the  wittiest 
man  of  his  day,  he  would  have  "been  accounted  one  of 
the  wisest." 

My  father  opened  his  house  for  a  month  to  that  poor, 
interesting  family  for  whom  he  had  interceded  with  so 
much  success  with  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  and  who  were  pin 
ing  for  a  little  fresh  air.  Among  these  was  a  clever, 
imaginative  little  boy,  by  whom  he  was  much  interested. 
Every  evening  he  examined  into  his  conduct  during  the 
day ;  and,  if  blameless,  sent  him  to  bed  with  a  large 
red  wafer  stuck  in  the  middle  of  his  forehead  as  a  re 
ward.  The  Order  of  the  Garter  could  not  have  made 
the  child  more  proud.  Once  only,  during  his  visit,  did 
he  forfeit  the  red  wafer,  and  went  sobbing  and  broken 
hearted  to  bed ;  having  been  convicted,  first,  of  cutting 
off  the  whiskers  of  Muff,  Annie  Kay's  favorite  cat ;  and 
last,  though  not  least,  meddling  with  the  poetical  salad 
when  dressed.  Such  crimes  could  not,  of  course,  be 
pardoned ! 

My  father  went,  for  a  short  time,  in  the  autumn,  to 
the  sea-side,  complaining  much  of  languor.  He  said, 
"I  feel  so  weak,  both  in  body  and  mind,  that  I  verily 
believe,  if  the  knife  were  put  into  my  hand,  I  should 
not  have  strength  or  energy  enough  to  stick  it  into  a 
Dissenter." 

In  October  my  father  was  taken  seriously  ill;  and 
Dr.  Holland  went  down  immediately  to  Combe  Florey, 
and  advised  his  coming  up  to  town,  where  he  might  be 
constantly  under  his  care.  He  bore  the  journey  well ; 
and  for  the  first  two  months,  though  very  weak,  went 
out  in  his  carriage  every  day,  saw  his  friends,  broke  out 
into  moments  of  his  natural  gayety,  saying  one  day, 
with  his  bright  smile,  to  General  Fox  (when  they  were 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY  SMITH.  359 

'keeping  him  on  very  low  diet,  and  not  allowing  him  any 
meat),  "  Ah,  Charles !  I  wish  I  were  allowed  even  the 
wing  of  a  roasted  butterfly ;"  and  was  at  times  so  like 
his  former  self,  that,  though  Dr.  Holland  was  uneasy 
about  him,  we  could  not  give  up  hope. 

But  other  and  more  urgent  symptoms  coming  on,  Dr. 
Holland  became  so  anxious,  that  he  begged  that  Dr. 
Chambers  might  be  called  in.  My  father  most  unwill 
ingly  consented — not  from  any  dislike  of  Dr.  Chambers, 
but  from  having  the  most  perfect  confidence  in  Dr.  Hol 
land's  care  and  skill. 

That  evening  he,  for  the  first  time,  told  his  old  maid 
and  nurse,  Annie  Kay,  that  he  knew  his  danger ;  said 
where  and  how  he  should  wish  to  be  buried ;  then  spoke 
of  us  all,  but  told  her  we  must  cheer  him,  and  keep  up 
his  spirits,  if  he  lingered  long. 

But  he  had  such  a  dread  of  sorrowful  faces  around 
him,  and  of  inflicting  pain,  that  to  us  he  always  spoke 
calmly  and  cheerfully,  and  as  if  unaware  of  his  danger. 

He  now  never  left  his  bed.  Though  suffering  much, 
he  was  gentle,  calm,  and  patient ;  and  sometimes  even 
cheerful.  He  spoke  but  little.  Once  he  said  to  me, 
taking  my  hand,  "I  should  like  to  get  well,  if  it  were 
only  to  please  Dr.  Holland ;  it  would,  I  know,  make 
him  so  happy ;  this  illness  has  endeared  him  so  much 
to  me." 

Speaking  once  of  the  extraordinary  interest  that  had 
been  evinced  by  his  friends  for  his  recovery  (for  the 
inquiries  at  his  door  were  incessant) — "  It  gives  me 
pleasure,  I  own,"  he  said,  "as  it  shows  I  have  not  mis 
used  the  powers  intrusted  to  me."  But  he  was  most 
touched  by  the  following  letter  from  Lady  Grey  to  my 
mother,  expressing  the  feelings  toward  him  of  one  of 
the  friends  he  most  loved  arid  honored — one  who  was, 
like  himself,  lying  on  that  bed  from  which  he  was  never 


360  MEMOIR  OF  THE  KEV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

to  rise,  and  who  was  speaking  as  it  were  his  farewell 
before  entering  on  eternity. 

"  Lord  Grey  is  intensely  anxious  about  him.  There 
is  nobody  of  whom  he  so  constantly  thinks ;  nobody 
whom,  in  the  course  of  his  own  long  illness,  he  so  ar 
dently  wished  to  see.  Need  I  add,  dear  Mrs.  Sydney, 
that,  excepting  only  our  children,  there  is  nobody  for 
whom  we  both  feel  so  sincere  an  affection.  God  knows 
how  truly  I  feel  for  your  anxiety.  Who  is  so  sadly 
entitled  to  do  so  as  I  am  ?  But  I  will  hope  the  best, 
and  that  we  may  both  be  blessed  by  seeing  the  person 
most  dear  to  us  restored  to  health." 

One  evening,  when  the  room  was  half-darkened,  and 
he  had  been  resting  long  in  silence,  and  I  thought  him 
asleep,  he  suddenly  burst  forth,  in  a  voice  so  strong 
and  full  that  it  startled  us — 

"  We  talk  of  human  life  as  a  journey,  but  how  vari 
ously  is  that  journey  performed  1  There  are  some  who 
come  forth  girt,  and  shod,  and  mantled,  to  walk  on 
velvet  lawns  and  smooth  terraces,  where  every  gale  is 
arrested,  and  every  beam  is  tempered.  There  are  others 
who  walk  on  the  Alpine  paths  of  life,  against  driving 
misery,  and  through  stormy  sorrows,  over  sharp  afflic 
tions  ;  walk  with  bare  feet,  and  naked  breast,  jaded, 
mangled,  and  chilled." 

And  then  he  sank  into  perfect  silence  again.  In  quot 
ing  this  beautiful  passage  from  his  sermon  on  Riches, 
his  mind  seems  to  have  turned  to  the  long  and  hard 
struggles  of  his  own  early  life. 

The  present  painful  struggle  did  not  last  many  days 
longer.  He  often  lay  silent  and  lost  in  thought,  then 
spoke  a  few  words  of  kindness  to  those  around.  He 
seemed  to  meet  death  with  that  calmness  which  the 


MEMOIR  OF  TIIK   KKV.   SYDNEY"   SMITH.  361 

memory  of  a  well-spent  life,  and  trust  in  the  mercy  of 
God,  can  alone  give. 

Almost  the  last  person  he  saw  was  his  favorite  and 
now  only-surviving  brother,  Bobus ;  and  nothing  could 
be  more  affecting  than  to  see  these  two  brothers  thus 
parting  on  the  brink  of  the  grave ;  for  my  dear  uncle 
only  left  my  father's  deathbed  to  lie  down  on  his  own 
—literally  fulfilling  the  petition  my  father  so  touchingly 
made  to  him  in  one  of  his  early  letters,  on  hearing  of 
his  illness,  "to  take  care  of  himself,  and  wait  for  him" 
— and  before  the  end  of  a  fortnight  had  followed  him  to 
the  grave. 

"HlCSLINGTON,   1818. 

"  DEAII  BOBUS, 

"  Pray  take  care  of  yourself.  We  shall  both  be  a 
brown  infragrant  powder  in  thirty  or  forty  years.  Let 
us  contrive  to  last  out  for  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same 
time.  Weary  will  the  latter  half  of  my  pilgrimage  be, 
if  you  leave  me  in  the  lurch.  Ever  your  affectionate 
brother,  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

Of  the  genius,  learning,  and  virtue  that  were  lost  to 
the  world  in  that  grave,  I  dare  not  attempt  to  speak ;  it 
belongs  to  other  and  abler  pens  than  mine  to  tell ;  but 
to  me  my  uncle's  death  was  as  the  death  of  a  second 
father — the  extinction  of  all  I  have  ever  known  or  con 
ceived  that  was  brightest  and  best  in  the  world. 

A  very  eminent  man,  who  had  the  rare  privilege  of 
associating  intimately  with  my  uncle,  writes  of  him  to 
Sir  Henry  Holland :  "I  never  knew  a  mind  with  so 
gigantic  a  grasp.  Our  talk  when  alone  was  always 
most  serious." 

These  beautiful  and  characteristic  lines  were  found  in 
my  uncle's  desk,  supposed  to  have  been  composed  by 
him  shortly  before  his  death : 
VOL.  L— Q 


362  MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  'Hie  jacet !' — O  huinanarum  meta  ultima  rerum ! 
Ultra  quam  labor  et  luctus  curaique  quiescunt, 
Ultra  quam  penduntur  opes  et  gloria  flocci ; 
Et  redit  ad  nihilum  vana  hac  et  turbida  vita : 
Ut  te  respicerent  homines !     Qua?  bella  per  orbem, 
Qui  motus  animorum  et  quanta  pericula  nostra 
Acciperent  facilem  sine  cade  et  sanguine  finem ! 
Tu  mihi  versare  ante  oculos,  non  tristis  imago, 
Sed  monitrix,  ut  me  ipse  regain,  domus  haic  mihi  cum  sit 
Vestibulum  tumuli,  et  senii  penultima  sedes." 

"  '  Hie  jacet !' — Oil  last  goal  of  human  things,  beyond 
which  labor  and  mourning  and  cares  are  at  rest — beyond 
which  riches  and  glory  are  weighed  as  nothing,  and  this 
vain  and  turbid  life  returns  to  nought !  Oh  that  men 
would  thus  regard  thee !  What  wars  throughout  the 
world,  what  passions  of  the  soul,  how  many  dangers 
besetting  us,  might  so  obtain  an  easy  termination  with 
out  slaughter  or  blood !  Mayest  thou  be  present  before 
my  eyes,  not  a  mournful  image,  but  an  admonisher, 
that  I  should  regulate  myself;  since  this  house  is  tome 
the  vestibule  of-  the  tomb,  and  the  next  to  closing  seat 
of  my  old  age  ! " 

My  father  died  at  peace  with  himself  and  with  all  the 
world ;  anxious,  to  the  last,  to  promote  the  comfort  and 
happiness  of  others.  He  sent  messages  of  kindness  and 
forgiveness  to  the  few  he  thought  had  injured  him. 
Almost  his  last  act  was  bestowing  a  small  living  of 
£120  per  annum  on  a  poor,  worthy,  and  friendless 
clergyman,  who  had  lived  a  long  life  of  struggle  with 
poverty  on  £40  per  annum.*  Full  of  happiness  and 
gratitude,  he  entreated  he  might  be  allowed  to  see  my 
father  ;  but  the  latter  so  dreaded  any  agitation  that  he 

*  In  dictating  a  few  words  in  his  favor  (for  he  was  too  weak  to 
write)  to  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff,  he  says :  "  In  addition  to  his  other 
merits,  I  am  sure  he  will  have  one  in  your  eyes,  for  he  is  an  out-and- 
out  Ton-."  So  little  did  party  feelings  influence  my  father  in  bestow 
ing  preferment ! 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  3G3 

most  unwillingly  consented,  saying,  "  Then  lie  must  not 
thank  me ;  I  am  too  weak  to  bear  it."  He  entered — 
my  father  gave  him  a  few  words  of  advice — the  clergy 
man  silently  pressed  his  hand,  and  blessed  his  death 
bed.  Surely  such  blessings  are  not  given  in  vain! 

My  father  expired  on  the  22d  of  February,  1845 — 
his  death  caused  by  hydrothorax,  or  water  on  the  chest, 
consequent  upon  disease  of  the  heart,  which  had  prob 
ably  existed  for  a  considerable  time,  but  rapidly  in 
creased  during  the  few  months  preceding  his  death. 
His  son  closed  his  eyes.  He  was  buried,  by  his  own 
desire,  as  privately  as  possible,  in  the  cemetery  of 
Kensal  Green ;  where  his  eldest  son,  Douglas,  arid  now 
my  mother,  repose  by  his  side. 

And  if  true  greatness  consists,  as  my  dear  and  valued 
old  friend  Mr.  Hogers  once  quoted  here  from  an  ancient 
Greek  writer,  "in  doing  what  deserves  to  be  written, 
and  writing  what  deserves  to  be  read,  and  in  making 
mankind  happier  and  better  for  your  life,"  my  father 
was  a  truly  great  and  good  man. 


My  mother's  anxiety  to  have  a  Memoir  written  of 
my  father  had  induced  her  to  apply  very  soon  after  his 
death  to  Mr.  Moore,  for  his  able  assistance ;  but  upon 
further  consideration  it  was  thought  the  event  was  then 
too  recent ;  and  before  sufficient  materials  could  be 
collected,  Mr.  Moore's  health  rendered  the  task  im 
possible.  The  following  letter  refers  to  my  mother's 
request  to  Lord  Jeffrey  to  contribute  his  recollections 
of  my  father : 

"JimeU,  1845. 

"MY  DEAR  MRS.  SMITH, 

"I  do  not  systematically  destroy  my  letters,  but  I 
take  no  care  of  them,  and  very  few,  I  fear,  have  been 


364  MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH. 

preserved.  I  shall  make  a  search,  however,  and  send 
you  all  I  can.  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  some  time  ago, 
that  Moore  had  agreed  to  assist  in  preparing  the  memo 
rial,  about  which  you  are  naturally  so  much  interested. 
He  will  do  it,  I  am  sure,  in  a  right  spirit,  and  with  the 
feeling  which  we  are  all  anxious  to  see  "brought  to  its 
execution.  Then  he  writes  gracefully,  is  so  great  a 
favorite  with  the  public,  that  the  addition  of  his  name 
can  not  fail  to  be  a  great  recommendation.  If  it  occurs 
to  me,  on  reflection,  that  there  is  any  thing  I  can  con 
tribute  in  the  way  you  suggest,  I  shall  be  most  happy 
to  have  my  name  once  more  associated  with  his  on  such 
an  occasion.  You  know  it  must  always  be  a  pleasure 
to  me  to  comply  with  any  request  of  yours  ;  and  the 
form  in  which  you  wish  this  to  be  done,  is  certainly 
that  which  I  should  prefer  to  any  other.  Yet  the 
models  to  which  you  refer,  might  ivell  deter  me  from 
attempting  any  thing  that  might  lead  to  comparison.* 

"I  am  glad  to  think  of  you  at  Munden,|  rather  than 
in  Green  Street,  in  this  charming  weather ;  and  beg  to  be 
most  kindly  remembered  there  to  my  beloved  Emily  and 
all  her  belongings. 

"  I  have  not  had  much  to  boast  of  in  the  way  of  health 
since  my  return,  but  have  still  been  well  enough  hither 
to  to  get  through  with  my  work.  We  are  fixed  here 
now,  I  think,  pretty  much  till  winter,  and  expect  to  be 
joined  by  Charley  and  her  infant,  in  a  fortnight. 
"With  kindest  regards, 

"Ever  very  affectionately  yours, 

"  F.  JEFFREY. 

"  CnAIGCROOK." 

*  Sydney's  Letters  to  the  Editors  of  Sir  J.  Mackintosh  and  Mr. 
Ilorncr's  Memoirs. 

t  Mr.  Ilibbert's  house  in  Hertfordshire. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEV.  SYDNEY    SMITH.  365 

"  DERBY. 

"  MY  DEAR  MRS.  SYDNEY, 

"Your  kind  note  of  the  12th  came  to  me  at  the  Euston 
Hotel  this  morning,  when  I  was  in  the  act  of  sallying 
forth  to  join  the  train  which  brought  me  here  two  hours 
ago.  So  you  see  I  could  not  possibly  thank  you  any 
earlier,  for  your  kind  inquiries  ;  nor  gratify  myself  by 
the  interesting  pilgrimage  to  Green  Street,  which  I  should 
otherwise  have  undertaken  with  such  a  deep  devotion  of 
feeling.  I  hope  yet  to  live,  however,  to  commune  with 
my  heart  at  that  shrine.*  I  am  glad  that  Eddis  has 
been  so  successful.  For  calm  and  true  expression,  and 
the  rendering  of  wThat  is  moral,  rather  than  passionate, 
in  our  natures,  I  think  he  is  the  first  of  our  living  art 
ists.  I  have  indeed  been  very  ill  and  recover  but  slow 
ly,  though  I  have  little  actual  suffering,  and  hope  to  be 
a  little  less  feeble  and  shabby  yet  before  I  die.  Not 
withstanding,  I  have  no  anxiety,  nor  low  spirits,  though 
the  animal  vitality  is  at  times  low  enough,  God  knows. 
My  affections  and  the  enjoyment  of  beautiful  nature,  I 
thank  Heaven,  arc  as  fresh  and  lively  as  in  the  first  poet 
ical  days  of  my  youth,  and  with  these  there  is  no 
thing  very  miserable  in  the  infirmity  of  age.  We  are 
taking  two  of  our  grandchildren  down  with  us,  and  I 
hope  to  have  the  whole  household  reunited  at  Craigcrook 
on  the  first  days  of  July.  They  are  all  (except  the  poor 
patriarch  who  tells  you  so)  in  the  full  flush  of  health 
and  gaycty,  and  would  make  a  brightness  in  a  darker 
home  than  mine. 

"  Give  my  true  and  tender  love  to  my  dear  Emily. 
I  often  think  of  her  in  her  early  home  at  Foston,  and  in 
that  still  earlier  Yorkshire  home,  where  she  tempted  me 
to  expose  myself  on  the  jackass. f 

*  A  portrait  of  ray  father,  which  Mr.  Eddis  had  just  pointed  for  my 
mother.  t  Sec  Narrative,  p.  153. 


366  MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"  With  kind  remembrances  to  Hibbert   and  all  his 
descendants,  God  bless  you  all,  and  always. 
"Very  affectionately  yours, 

"F.  JEFFREY." 


Hints  on  Female  Education. 

Though  the  subject  of  education  is  now  much  more 
generally  studied  and  understood  than  it  was  formerly, 
yet  the  following  slight  hints,  written  at  the  request  of 
a  very  young  mother,  when  my  father  was  a  very  young- 
man,  may  not  be  entirely  without  value  and  interest  to 
some  young  mother  now ;  and  at  least  show  how  early 
he  felt  the  value  and  importance  of  education  to  women. 
I  received  them  too  late  to  insert  them  in  their  proper 
place. 

"  I  am  afraid,  my  dear  madam,  you  will  find  in  these 
few  hints  little  which  you  have  not  already  anticipated, 
and  that  their  only  merit  will  be,  that  intention  of  being 
useful  to  your  children  by  which  they  are  dictated. 
Your  daughters  will  have  a  great  deal  to  do,  and  you  will 
have  a  great  deal  to  superintend ;  and  exertion  on  their 
part,  and  inspection  on  yours,  will  lose  very  much  of 
their  effects  without  a  systematic  distribution  of  time. 
I  can  not  compliment  you  with  having  been  a  great  econ 
omist  of  life.  In  your  own  instance  indeed  it  is  not  of 
much  importance ;  but  the  education  of  your  daughters 
ought  to  (and  I  am  sure  will)  impose  upon  you  a  re 
straint  of  natural  propensities.  If  you  wish  to  be  use 
ful  to  them,  you  must  be  active,  persevering,  and  sys 
tematic  ;  you  must  lay  out  the  day  in  regular  plots  and 
parterres ;  and  toil  and  relax  at  intervals,  fixed  as  much 
as  your  other  affairs  will  permit.  The  consideration  of 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  867 

religion  may  perhaps  be  brought  too  frequently  before 
the  minds  of  young  people.  Pleasure  and  consolation 
through  life  may  be  derived  from  a  judicious  religious 
education  ;  a  mistaken  zeal  may  embitter  the  future  days 
of  a  child  with  superstition,  melancholy,  and  terror. 
Short  prayers  at  rising  and  going  to  bed ;  a  regular  at 
tendance  at  church  ;  the  precepts  of  a  mother  as  a  friend, 
sparingly  and  opportunely  applied,  appear  to  me  to  be 
the  best  kind  of  foundation  for  the  superstructure  of  reli 
gion.  It  will  be  wise  perhaps  to  teach  them  very  early, 
that  Sunday  is  a  day  on  which  their  ordinary  studies 
should  be  laid  aside,  and  others  of  a  more  serious  nature 
attended  to.  What  the  religious  books  are  which  are  to 
be  put  into  the  hands  of  children,  you  know  best ;  but 
there  are  some  which,  when  their  understandings  become 
more  enlarged,  your  daughters  should  certainly  read, 
such  as*  .  .  . 

"  God  has  made  us  with  strong  passions  and  little 
wisdom.  To  inspire  the  notion  that  infallible  vengeance 
will  be  the  consequence  of  every  little  deviation  from 
our  duty  is  to  encourage  melancholy  and  despair.  Wo 
men  have  often  ill  health  and  irritable  nerves  ;  they  want 
moreover  that  strong  coercion  over  the  fancy  which  judg 
ment  exercises  in  the  minds  of  men  ;  hence  they  are  apt 
to  cloud  their  minds  with  secret  fears  and  superstitious 
presentiments.  Check,  my  dear  madam,  as  you  value 
their  future  comfort,  every  appearance  of  this  in  your 
daughters  ;  dispel  that  prophetic  gloom  which  dives  into 
futurity,  to  extract  sorrow  from  days  and  years  to  come, 
and  which  considers  its  own  unhappy  visions  as  the  de 
crees  of  Providence.  We  know  nothing  of  to-morrow  ; 
our  business  is  to  be  good  and  happy  to-day. 

*  Omitted,  because,  since  this  period,  works  fitted  for  the  young 
have  become  so  numerous  and  are  so  improved,  that  the  list  is  of  little 
use. 


368  MEMOIR  OF  THE   KEY.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

"One  of  the  great  practical  goods  which  Christianity 
is  every  day  producing  to  society  is  that  extreme  atten 
tion  to  the  necessities  of  the  poor,  for  which  this  coun 
try  is  so  remarkable.  I  hope  you  will  give  your  daugh 
ters  a  taste  for  active  interference  of  this  kind ;  nothing 
makes  a  woman  so  amiable  and  respectable. 

"  I  would  keep  from  my  daughters  immoral  books, 
skeptical  books,  and  novels ;  from  which  last  I  except 
Sir  C.  Grandison.  I  confess  I  have  a  very  great  dread 
of  novels ;  the  general  moral  may  be  good,  but  they 
dwell  on  subjects  and  scenes  which  it  appears  to  me  it 
is  the  great  object  of  female  education  to  exclude.  A 
woman's  heart  does  not  want  softening ;  it  is  a  strange 
composition  of  tears,  sighs,  sorrows,  ecstasies,  fears, 
smiles,  etc.,  etc. — a  man  is  all  flesh  and  blood. 

"  I  hope  at  the  proper  time  you  will  take  your  chil 
dren  into  the  world.  It  will  please  them,  relieve  them 
from  that  painful  shyness  and  embarrassment  insepara 
ble  from  a  retired  life,  and  give  them  the  fair  chance 
they  ought  to  have  of  settling  to  advantage. 

"The  accomplishments  are  of  use,  as  they  embellish 
and  occupy  the  mind ;  but  after  all,  they  are  subordin 
ate  points  of  education,  and  too  much  time  may  very 
easily  be  given  to  them.  It  is  very  agreeable  to  look 
at  good  drawings ;  it  is  very  delightful  to  hear  good 
music  ;  but  good  sense,  sound  judgment,  and  cultivated 
understanding,  are  superior  to  every  thing  else — they 
make  the  good  wife,  the  enlightened  mother,  the  inter 
esting  companion.  Do  not  suppose  I  am  decrying  ac 
complishments.  I  am  only  giving  them  their  just  rank, 
and  guarding  against  that  exclusive  care  and  absorbent 
eagerness  with  which  it  is  at  present  the  fashion  to  cul 
tivate  them. 

"You  mean  to  give  your  girls  a  taste  for  reading. 
Nothing  else  can  so  well  enable  them  to  pass  their  lives 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH.  3G9 

with  dignity,  with  innocence,  and  with  interest.  Let  us 
go  into  detail,  and  see  if  we  can  chalk  out  a  convenient 
plan  for  them.  They  must  learn  French  ;  do  you  know 
enough  of  this  language  to  instruct  them,  or  must  they 
have  a  master  ?  If  the  latter,  the  grammar,  pronuncia 
tion,  etc.,  will  Ibe  his  affair.  In  the  choice  of  books  it 
will  be  very  much  in  your  power  to  direct  them ;  the 
first  will  be  easy,  and  suitable  to  children  in  point  of 
language ;  such  books  abound — you  can  not  mistake 
them ;  then  the  whole  field  of  French  literature  is  open 
for  you  to  select  from.  For  example,  when  you  think 
them  old  enough,  and  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the 
language,  let  them  read  Bourdaloue  and  Massillon's  Ser 
mons,  Bossuet's  Oraisons  Funebres,  Sermons  of  Father 
Elisee,  as  specimens  of  the  sacred  eloquence  of  the 
French ;  let  them  read  some  of  the  best  plays  of  Pierre 
Corneille,  Racine,  Molierc,  Voltaire's  tragedies,  some  of 
Boileau,  particularly  the  Lutrin,  the  Henriade  of  Vol 
taire.  Supposing  they  wish  to  read  French  history,  al 
ways  take  care  to  make  geography  and  chronology  go 
hand  in  hand  with  history,  without  which  it  is  nothing 
but  a  confused  jumble  of  places  and  events.  When  they 
have  read  the  history  of  Greece  and  Rome,  they  should 
not  fail  to  read  Plutarch's  Lives ;  one  of  the  most  de 
lightful  books  antiquity  has  left  us.  They  will  of  course 
pay  an  early  attention  to  the  history  of  their  own  coun 
try,  which  they  will  find  curiously  detailed  in  Henry, 
philosophically  in  Hume,  dryly  and  accurately  in  Rapin. 
With  the  poets  and  dramatic  writers  of  our  own  country 
you  are  as  well  acquainted  as  myself.  I  hope  they  will 
learn  Italian.  In  arithmetic  it  does  not  appear  to  be  of 
consequence  that  they  should  go  far,  not  further,  per 
haps,  than  compound  division ;  but  I  would  certainly 
endeavor,  by  much  practice,  to  make  them  very  dex 
trous  in  the  common  operations  of  subtracting,  multiply- 

Q* 


37 0  MEMOIR   OF  THE  REV.   SYDNEY   SMITH. 

ing,  and  adding.  It  is  of  great  importance  to  give  them 
correct  notions  in  the  common  elements  of  geography 
and  astronomy,  and  to  make  them  quite  at  their  ease  in 
the  use  of  maps :  this  will  be  done  in  very  little  time. 
In  the  order  of  study,  the  acquirement  of  what  is  pre 
paratory  to  general  literature  will  first  require  your  at 
tention,  as  well  as  those  which  are  of  indispensable  ne 
cessity  ;  I  mean  writing,  ciphering,  French,  geography, 
spelling,  etc.  When  these  first  difficulties  are  got  over, 
put  them  boldly  on  the  Greek  and  Roman  history  in 
the  mornings,  and  poetry  or  belles  lettres — English  or 
French — in  the  afternoons.  Remark  to  them,  encour 
age  them  to  make  their  remarks  to  you ;  applaud,  blame, 
encourage,  and  use  every  little  pious  artifice  in  your 
power  to  give  them  that  sure,  best,  and  happiest  of  all 
worldly  attainments — a  taste  for  literary  improvement. 

"  I  have  recommended  a  division  of  studies  into  those 
of  the  morning  and  evening,  because  I  think  it  can  be 
very  easily  done  without  producing  confusion,  and  it  is 
tedious  to  dwell  upon  one  subject  for  a  whole  day.  If 
you  can  get  them  to  read  in  a  connected  method,  you 
will  have  gained  a  point  of  great  importance.  For  ex 
ample,  Spenser  precedes  Dryden,  Pope,  etc.  ;  and  by 
following  this  order  of  precedence,  you  see  the  improve 
ment  of  language,  and  remark  how  each  poet  is  indebted 
to  those  who  went  before  him.  Voyages  and  travels, 
and  the  history  of  modern  Europe,  would  exhaust  the 
longest  life.  Botany  they  will  be  delighted  with. 

"  I  have  given  a  list  of  some  few  books  in  the  prin 
cipal  departments  of  knowledge,  in  case  they  should  strike 
into  any  one  of  them.  The  truth  is,  it  is  not  important 
what  part  of  knowledge  they  love  best.  A  woman  who 
loves  history,  is  not  more  respectable  than  a  woman  who 
loves  natural  philosophy  ;  either  will  afford  innocent,  dig^ 
nificd,  improving  occupation.  If  they  show  no  predilec- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.  371 

tion,  then  give  them  one:  if  they  do,  follow  it.      We 
move  most  quickly  to  that  point  where  we  wish  to  go. 

"  Let  your  children  see  that  you  are  sorry  to  restrain 
them,  happy  to  indulge  them.  Confess  your  ignorance 
when  they  put  questions  to  you  which  you  can  not  an 
swer,  and  refer  them  elsewhere  ;  and  relax  from  your  in 
struction  and  authority  in  proportion  as  your  children 
want  them  less.  I  write  positively,  my  dear  madam,  to 
avoid  the  long  and  circuitous  language  of  diffidence,  not 
"because  I  attach  any  value  to  my  opinions. 

"I  have  contented  myself  with  general  hints,  because 
in  writing  on  these  subjects  it  is  no  very  difficult  thing 
to  slip  into  a  folio  volume.  I  have  omitted  the  mention 
of  many  things  which  I  know  you  will  do  well,  and  have 
purposely  introduced  that  of  others  where  I  have  some 
apprehensions  of  you.  If  it  were  not  to  make  you  an 
offer  unworthy  of  acceptance,  I  should  say  that  my  se 
rious  and  most  zealous  advice  is  always  at  your  command. 

"Adieu,  my  dear  madam;  take  courage,  exert  your 
self.  If  there  be  one  sight  on  earth  which  commands 
interest,  respect,  and  assistance  from  men,  it  is  that  of  a 
good  mother,  who,  under  the  providence  of  God,  exerts 
her  whole  strength  for  the  advantage  and  improvement 
of  her  children. 

"  Your  most  sincere  well-wisher, 

"  SYDNEY  SMITH." 


TO 

SYDNEY    SMITH, 

ONE    OF   THE    BEST    OF    MEN. 
HIS    TALENTS,  THOUGH    ADMITTED    BY   HIS    CONTEMPORARIES    TO    BE    GREAT, 

WERE    SURPASSED    BY 

HIS    UNOSTENTATIOUS    BENEVOLENCE,   HIS    FEARLESS    LOVE    OK    TRUTH, 

AND    HIS    ENDEAVOR    TO    PROMOTE    THE    HAPPINESS    OF    MANKIND 

BY    RELIGIOUS    TOLERATION 

AND 

BY    RATIONAL    FREEDOM. 
HE    WAS    BORN  THE   3D   OF   JUNE,    1771  ;    HE    BECAME   CANON    RESIDENTIARY 

OF  ST.  PAUL'S  CATHEDRAL,  1831  ;  HE  DIED  FEBRUARY  THE  22D,  1815. 


[On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Tomb.] 

DOUGLAS    SMITH, 

THE    ELDEST    SON    OF    THE    REV.   SYDNEY    SMITH, 

AND    OP 

CATHARINE    AMELIA,  HIS    WIFE. 
HE    WAS    BORN    FEBRUARY    27,    1805  ;     HE    DIED    APRIL    15,    1829. 

HIS    LIFE    WAS    BLAMELESS. 

HIS   DEATH   WAS  THE  FIRST  SORROW 

HE     F.VKR     OCCASIONED     HIS     PARENTS, 

BUT    IT    WAS    DEEP    AND    LASTING. 


LIST  OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH'S  ARTICLES  IN  THE 
EDINBURGH  REVIEW. 


Vol. 

Art. 

Page. 

Vol. 

Art. 

Page. 

Vol. 

Art. 

Page 

o 

18 

12 

9 

151 

32 

6 

389 

3 

24 

13 

2 

25 

33 

3 

68 

9 

83 

13 

5 

77 

33 

5 

91 

12 

94 

13 

4 

333 

34 

ft 

109 

16 

113 

14 

3 

40 

34 

2 

320 

18 

122 

14 

11 

145 

34 

8 

4»2 

20 

128 

14 

5 

353 

35 

5 

92 

1 

6 

314 

14 

13 

490 

35 

7 

123 

1 

10 

382 

15 

3 

40 

35 

9 

A 

286 

2 

2 

30 

15 

3 

299 

36 

6 

110 

2 

4 

53 

16 

7 

158 

36 

3 

353 

2 

6 

86 

16 

3 

326 

37 

2 

325 

2 

14 

136 

16 

7 

399 

37 

7 

432 

2 

17 

172 

17 

4 

330 

38 

4 

85 

2 

22 

202 

17 

8 

393 

39 

2 

43 

2 

2 

287 

18 

3 

325 

39 

2 

299 

4> 

*V 

4 

330 

21 

4 

93 

40 

2 

31 

o 

10 

398 

22 

4 

67 

40 

7 

427 

3 

12 

146 

23 

8 

189 

41 

7 

143 

3 

7 

334 

31 

2 

44 

42 

4 

367 

3 

9 

355 

31 

6 

132 

43 

2 

299 

9 

12 

177 

31 

2 

295 

43 

7 

395 

10 

4 

299 

32 

2 

28 

44 

2 

47 

10 

6 

329 

32 

3 

309 

45 

3 

74 

11 

5 

341 

32 

6 

111 

45 

7 

423 

12 

5 

82 

INDEX. 


Absence  of  mind,  page  320,  321. 

Abstraction,  power  of,  109. 

Allen,  Mr.,  recommendation  of,  to  Lord 
Holland,  30. 

Amalgams,  moral,  193. 

America,  reported  visit  to,  269 

Animals,  interest  in,  111,  112,  158;  medi 
cine  administered  to,  111  ;  scratcher  for, 
112. 

Apologue  on  Toleration,  195,  196 ;  letter 
of  Mr.  Everett  relating  to,  196. 

Apothecary's  shop,  315,  346. 

Arms  of  the  Smith  family,  217. 

Austin's  (Mrs.)  account  of  sermon  at  St. 
Paul's,  273. 

Ballot,  pamphlet  on  the,  286. 

Banker,  dining  with  a,  347. 

Belgium,  visit  to,  226,  227  ;  interview  with 

the  King  of,  226. 

Benevolence,  fragment  on,  124,  125. 
Berkeley  Chapel,  morning  preachership  at, 

79. 

Berry,  Miss,  Ode  by,  83  ;  visit  to,  235. 
Bible  names,  308. 
Birth  and  ancestry,  13,  14. 
Bishop,  duties  of  a,  211 ;  marriage  of  a,  230. 
Bishopric,  views  with  regard  to  a,  209, 210, 

21 1-,  probability  of  elevation  to,  218. 
Bishopthorpe,  visit  to,  160,  161. 
Blind,  sermon  for  the,  57. 
Blinds,  colored  patchwork,  161. 
Bobus.     See  Smith,  Robert. 
Body,  the,  a  fragment  on,  117. 
Books,  love  of,  163,  214. 
Bristol,  becomes  Canon  of,  194  ;   sermon 

at  the  Cathedral,  194  ;  popularity  at,  206  ; 

riots  at,  206. 

Bunch,  145,  161,  168,  175. 
Business  habits,  109,  347. 

Calamity,  horse  so  named,  158. 

Carlisle,  Lady,  lines  by,  292. 

Carlisle,  Lord,  commencement  of  friend 
ship  of,  152  ;  frequent  visits  of,  153. 

Catholic  Emancipation,  petition  for,  181  ; 
speech  in  favor  of,  183. 

Cheerfulness,  remarks  on,  123. 

Chess,  192. 

Children,  fondness  for,  108,  113,  312;  in 
terest  in  the  pursuits  of,  108,  249. 

Chimneys,  smoky,  1 12. 

Cholera,  spread  of  the,  214. 


Christianity,  evidences  of,  56 ;  tolerant 
spirit  of,  57. 

Christmas-day  at  Combe  Florey,  349,  350. 

Church,  state  of  the,  32. 

Classes  of  society,  336. 

Clergyman,  poor,  living  obtained  for  a,  362. 

Club,  the,  88,  89. 

Cockerell,  Mr.,  letter  from,  on  performance 
of  duties  as  Canon  of  St.  Paul's,  221. 

Combe  Florey,  removal  to,  202 ;  rebuilds 
parsonage-house,  204  ;  visit  of  Lord  Jef 
frey,  204  ;  library  at,  214  ;  visit  of  Lord 
John  Russell,  214,  215;  mode  of  life  at, 
293  ;  Christmas-day  at,  349  ;  sermon  at, 
351 ;  last  return  to,  358. 

Composition,  rapid,  habit  of,  106. 

Court,  presentation  at,  199. 

Courtenay  Smith,  death  of,  249. 

Curacy  on  Salisbury  Plain,  21 ;  the  squire, 

Dandy,  thawing  a,  164. 

Dante,  tortures  described  by,  237. 

Davy,  Lady,  visit  of,  142. 

Deer,  parsonic,  305. 

Delinquents,  juvenile,  150. 

Denman,  Lord,  314. 

Diary,  portions  of,  114-117. 

Dining  out  in  the  country,  136. 

Dogs,  dislike  of,  180,  334. 

Donkey,  a  favorite,  140. 

Douglas  Smith,  birth  of.  67  ;  sent  to  West 
minster  School,  164  ;  goes  to  Oxford,  178 ; 
death,  201  ;  letter  to  Lady  Wenlock  re 
lating  to  his  death,  202. 

Dryden's  house,  237. 

Dudley,  Lord,  anecdotes  of,  321,  322. 

Ecclesiastical  Commission,  contest  with 
the,  241. 

Ecclesiastical  Duties  and  Revenues  Bill, 
petition  against,  244. 

Economy  practiced,  184. 

Edgeworth,  Miss,  visit  of,  to  London,  274  ; 
letter  from,  275  ;  conversation  of,  346. 

Edinburgh,  society  at,  23  ;  residence  at,  23, 
62,  346. 

Edinburgh  Review,  origin  of,  31  ;  state  of 
society  at  the  establishment  of,  32  ;  mor 
al  courage  in  contributing  to,  32  ;  char 
acter  of  writings  in,  37-43 ;  Sydney 
Smith  ceases  to  write  for,  205  ;  publica 
tion  of  his  contributions  to,  205. 


376 


INDEX. 


Edmonton,  the  living  of,  257  ;  address  of 

parishioners,  258;  letter  to  the  Bishop 

of  London  relating  to,  260. 
Education,  38  ;  importance  of  religious,  58 ; 

views  on,  283,  297,  317  ;  female,  hints 

on,  366. 

Ellenborough,  Lord,  anecdote  of,  332. 
Erasmus,  life  of,  280,  281. 
Everett,  Mr.,  visit  of,  357 
Exchange  of  living,  efforts  to  obtain,  104, 

141. 

Fallacies,  318. 

Farmers,  annual  dinner  to,  110. 

Female  education,  hints  on,  366. 

Filial  affection,  instance  of,  169. 

Fireplaces,  importance  of,  232,  233. 

Fishmongers'  Hall,  invitation  to  dine  at, 
101. 

Flowers,  love  of,  230. 

Foston-Ie-Clay,  obtains  the  living  of,  96; 
induction,  97  ;  conversation  at  the  Arch 
bishop's,  97  ;  compelled  to  reside  on  liv 
ing,  102;  resolves  to  build,  103;  com 
mences  building,  143  ;  house  completed, 
147  ;  the  household,  148,  149,  163  ,  ac 
count  of  a  visit,  by  a  clergyman,  188 ; 
Mr.  Loch's  opinion  of  the  parsonage- 
house,  204  ;  revisited,  249. 

Foundling  Hospital,  appointed  to  the 
preachership  of  the,  69  ;  anecdote,  90. 

Fox,  Miss,  220. 

Franklin,  admiration  of,  312. 

Friendship,  remarks  on,  122. 

Fry,  Mrs.,  a  visit  with,  to  Newgate,  151. 

Game-laws,  39,  150. 

Garden  chair,  322  ;  lines  on  receiving,  291. 

Gardens  for  the  poor,  112. 

Grattan,  Mr.,  death  of,  171 ;  character  of, 
171. 

Grenville,  Mr.,  old  age  of,  234,  324  ;  letter 
from,  254. 

Grey,  Lord,  first  visit  to,  101  ;  fall  of  his 
administration,  218;  proposed  inscrip 
tion  for  monument  to,  247. 

Handwriting,  badness  of,  174. 

Happiness,  recipe  for,  261. 

Hardness  of  character,  262. 

Harvest,  failure  of,  in  1816.  155. 

Hatherton,  Lord,  letter  to,  194. 

Heslington,  residence  at,  105  ;  mode  of  life 
at,  105  ;  visits  of  friends,  133. 

Hints,  historical,  129. 

Holland,  Lord,  friendship  of,  78,  92 ;  letter 
from,  relating  to  Plymley's  Letters,  100  ; 
visits  Foston,  156 ;  offers  the  living  of 
Ampthill,  160;  letter  to,  relative  to  a 
bishopric,  210;  death  of,  250;  portrait 
of,  251. 

Holland  House,  first  visit  to,  77 ;  society 
at,  77. 

Holland,  Dr.,  attendance  of,  in  last  illness, 
358. 

Holland,  tour  in,  225,  226. 

Horner,  L.,  first  acquaintance  with,  26, 27  ; 
character  of,  27,  154  ;  removal  to  London, 
88  ;  declining  health  and  death,  154 ;  let 
ter  of  Sydney  Smith  to  his  brother,  154. 


Humor,  instances  of  want  of  perception 

of,  238,  324. 
Hunt,  trial  of,  170. 

Immortal,  the,  146,  151,  190,  191. 

Immortality,  evidence  of,  56. 

Impertinence,  official,  175. 

Innocence  vindicated,  218. 

Ireland,  condition  of,  99  ;  sketch  of  English 

misrule  in,  131. 
Irreligion,  abhorrence  of,  185. 
Italian  refugee,  marriage  of  an,  159. 

Jeffrey,  Lord,  visit  of,  at  Heslington,  137, 
140 ;  lines  on,  141 ;  visit  to,  at  Edin 
burgh,  173  ;  letters  to,  on  the  principles 
of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  185  ;  visit  to 
Combe  Florey,  204 ;  Sydney  Smith's  re 
gard  for,  345 ;  letters  from,  during  last 
illness,  356 ;  letters  relating  to  Memoir, 
363. 

Johnson,  Dr.,  anecdote  of,  109. 

Journal  of  a  Lady,  279  ;  of  a  Scotch  friend, 
345. 

Justice,  love  of,  36,  209. 

Justice  of  the  Peace,  Sydney  Smith  be 
comes  a,  150. 

Kay,  Annie,  148,  163,  314,  359. 

Labels,  doctors',  330. 

Lectures,  extracts   from,  44-46 ;   delivery 

of,  at  the  Royal  Institution,  80;  public 

interest  excited  by,  80-82. 
Legacy, 173. 
Lemons,  store  of,  315. 
Leyden,  Mr.,  29. 

Liberal  opinions,  advocacy  of,  34 ;  penal 
ties  attending,  35. 
Liberty,  views  respecting,  34. 
License  for  a  chapel,  efforts  to  obtain,  70 ; 

correspondence  relating  to,  70-76 
Life,  how  usually  spent,  282. 
Londesborough,  obtains  the  living  of,  183. 
London,  removal  to,  67 ;  society  in,  C8,  77, 

86,  229,  231. 
Longevity,  280. 

Lucan,  a  copy  of,  sent  to  Mr.  Grenville.  254. 
Luttrell,  Mr.,  visit  of,  329. 
Lyndhurst,  Lord,  visit  of,  170  ;  promotion 

by,  193,  194  ;  renewed  kindness  of,  201, 

202. 

Macaulay,  Mr.,  letter  from,  on  English  mis 
rule  in  Ireland,  131  ;  opinion  of,  320. 

Mackintosh,  Sir  J.,  anecdote  of,  87  ;  return 
of,  from  India,  138  ;  visit  of,  at  Hesling 
ton,  138  ;  at  Foston,  176  ;  Sydney  Smith's 
regard  for,  176,  215  ;  death  of,  215  ;  char 
acter,  216  ;  correspondence  with,  210  ; 
remarks  on,  337,  340 ;  imitation  of  a 
speech  of,  341. 

Manners,  on  the  neglect  of,  as  a  part  of 
education,  317. 

Marcet,  Dr.  and  Mrs.,  visit  of,  166;  inci 
dents  related  by  Mrs.  Marcet,  166,  168, 
293  ;  letter  from,  260. 

Marion  de  Lorme,  letter  of,  338. 

Marriage,  27,  28  ;  office  for,  311  ;  definition 
of,  320, 


INDEX. 


377 


Maxims  and  ruins  of  life,  114. 

Medicine,  study  and  practice  of,  64.  05.  Ill, 

219,  314. 

Melancholy,  remedy  for,  342. 
Mind,  the,  a  fragment  on,  128. 
Missions,  opinion  of,  331. 
Moore,  T.,  visit  of,  254  ;  letters  from,  255  ; 

requested  to  write  Memoir,  363. 
Moral  philosophy,  study  of,  05 ;   lectures 

on,  80. 
Murray's  (Lord)  sketch  of  Sydney  Smith, 

289. 
Music,  remark  on,  342. 

Nethcrhaven,  curacy  of,  20 ;   life  at,  21  ; 

intimacy  with  the  squire,  22. 
New  Zealand,  advice  to  a  Bishop  of,  337. 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  an  ancestor,  15. 
Nice  person,  definition  of  a,  177. 
North  Pole,  Jeffrey  and  the,  26. 

Occupation,  incessant,  106;  essay  on,  119. 
Olier,  Miss,  character  of,  14. 
Opinions,  moderation  of,  33. 

Paris,  visit  to,  184. 

Parish-clerk  at  Foston,  103. 

Parishioners,  advice  to,  299. 

Parsonage-house  at  Foston,  account  of 
building  the,  144  ;  removal  to,  147. 

Partington,  Mrs.,  215. 

Paul's,  St.,  becomes  Canon  of,  215  ;  letter 
from  Mr.  Cockcrell  relating  to  Canonry, 
221  ;  remarks  of  the  Dean,  225. 

Peasantry,  significance  of  words  used  by 
the,  304. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  correspondence  with, 
277. 

Peter  the  Cruel,  105,  111. 

Philips,  Sir  G.,  visit  to,  151. 

Pictures,  purchase  of,  93  ;  appreciation  of, 
239,  240. 

Plymley's  Letters,  appearance  of,  98  ;  pub 
lic  interest  in,  98 ;  letter  from  Lord  Hol 
land  relating  to,  100. 

Poor,  sympathy  with  the,  311,  340,  347. 

Pope,  parody  on,  331. 

Preaching  at  St.  Paul's,  impression  pro 
duced  by,  272 ;  at  Combe  Florey,  275. 

Preferment,  letters  on,  209-211. 

Promotion,  hopes  of,  186  ;  letter  on,  187  ; 
becomes  Canon  of  Bristol,  193 ;  and  of 
St.  Paul's,  215. 

Pybus,  Miss,  marriage  to.  27. 

Quaker,  roasting  a,  135. 
Quakers,  heroic  conduct  of,  156. 

Raven,  anecdote  of  a,  281. 

Reading,  rapid,  habit  of,  106. 

Religious  views,  55. 

Repudiation,  American,  263 ;  Mr.  Tick- 
nor's  letter  on,  264. 

Residence  Bill,  passing  of  the,  101. 

Riding,  unskillful,  156,  161. 

Robin,  M.,  article  by,  in  the  "Revue  des 
Deux  Mondcs,"  353  ;  correspondence  re 
lating  to,  353-355. 

Rogers,  Mr.,  visits  Foston,  150  ;  illness  of, 
170. 


Romilly,  Sir  S.,  visit  of,  at  Heslington,  133 ; 
sermon  on  the  death  of,  134. 

Royal  Institution,  lectures  at  the,  on  Mor 
al  Philosophy,  80. 

Russell,  Lord  John,  letter  to,  210 ;  reply 
of,  210. 

Salad,  recipe  for,  329. 

Scotch,  regard  for  the,  24  ;  peculiarities  of 
the,  24. 

Scratcher,  the  universal,  112. 

Screaming  gate,  the,  309. 

Sermons,  preface  to,  46-55  ;  characteristics 
of,  59-62 ;  effect  produced  by,  79 ;  pub 
lishes  two  volumes  of,  104  ;  preached  at 
York,  179. 

Sevigne,  Madame  de,  331. 

Shaking  hands,  lesson  on,  310. 

Sheridan,  dining  with,  325. 

Shooting,  objections  to,  133. 

Shopping,  160. 

Shyness,  233,  324. 

Siddons,  Mrs.,  92,  332. 

Singing,  fondness  for,  192. 

Sister,  death  of,  153. 

Sketches,  a  few  unfinished,  117. 

Smith,  Robert,  return  of,  from  India,  138  ; 
remarkable  conversational  powers  of, 
139;  Indian  fame  of,  139;  visit  of,  at 
Heslington,  139  ;  illness,  139  ;  visit  to  his 
brother  during  last  illness,  361  ;  death, 
361  ;  character,  361 ;  lines  written  by, 
362. 

Smith,  Robert,  sen.,  singular  character  of, 
13,  14  ;  visit  to,  170. 

Smith,  Sydney:  birth  and  ancestry,  13; 
early  character,  16  ;  school  days  at  Win 
chester,  18 ;  goes  to  Oxford,  19  ;  resi 
dence  in  France,  19  ;  college  life,  20  ; 
choice  of  a  profession,  20,  21 ;  becomes 
a  curate  on  Salisbury  Plain,  21  ;  engaged 
as  tutor  by  Mr.  Beach,  22,  02  ;  arrival  at 
Edinburgh,  23;  marriage,  27;  his  for 
tune,  28  ;  early  housekeeping,  28  ;  gen 
erosity,  29 ;  birth  of  a  daughter,  30  ;  mor 
al  courage,  32  ;  freedom  from  crude  opin 
ions,  33  ;  illness  of  daughter,  63  ;  stud 
ies  medicine,  05  ;  quits  Edinburgh,  CO  ; 
birth  of  son,  07  ;  removal  to  London,  07  ; 
cheerfulness,  92,  200 ;  obtains  the  rec 
tory  of  Foston, 90  ;  removes  to  Sunning, 
98  ;  compelled  to  reside  on  living,  102  ; 
leaves  London,  104  ;  removes  to  Hesling 
ton,  105 ;  visits  London,  138 ;  generosity 
of  character,  138,  139,  102;  commences 
building,  143  ;  birth  of  second  son,  146  ; 
removal  to  Foston,  147 ;  the  living  of 
Ampthill  offered,  160  ;  visits  Edinburgh, 
165,  173 ;  visit  to  his  brother  in  London, 
174;  improved  circumstances,  183;  vis 
its  Paris,  184  ;  hopes  of  promotion,  186  ; 
marriage  of  youngest  daughter,  193  ;  be 
comes  Canon  of  Bristol,  193 ;  resigns 
Foston,  and  removes  to  Combe  Florey, 
202 ;  ceases  writing  for  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  205 ;  publishes  his  contribu 
tions,  205;  marriage  of  eldest  daugh 
ter,  217  ;  christens  granddaughter,  220  ; 
takes  a  house  in  London,  220;  revisits 
Paris,  221 ;  fragments  of  conversation, 


378 


INDEX. 


230-241 ;  return  to  Combe  Florey,  248 ; 
unexpected  wealth,  249 ;  revisits  Fos- 
ton,  249  ;  mode  oflife  at  Combe  Florey, 
293,  342,  347  ;  habits  of  study,  326  ;  last 
return  to  London,  352 ;  goes  to  the  sea 
side,  358  ;  last  illness,  358  ,  anxiety  of 
friends,  359 ;  visit  of  his  brother  Robert, 
361. 

Somersetshire,  climate  of,  306. 

Squire,  a  country,  144. 

Stae'l,  Madame  de,  visits  England,  1?8; 
becomes  acquainted  with  Mr  Robert 
Smith,  139. 

Stewart,  Dugald,  death  of,  239. 

Stomach-pump,  316. 

Stowell,  Lord,  100. 

Study,  plans  of,  107. 

Style,  beauty  of,  297. 

Suppers,  weekly,  86;  the  country  cousin,  87. 

Swing,  Letters  to,  212. 

Talleyrand,  anecdote  of,  16  ;  acquaintance 
with,  185  ;  conversation  of,  228  ;  opinion 
of  his  wit,  228. 

Taunton,  speech  at  county  meeting  held 
at,  207  ,  eflect  produced  by,  208 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  apologue  by,  on  Tolera 
tion,  195,  196. 

Thomson,  Mrs.,  letter  to,  relating  to  the 
death  of  his  son,  202. 

Ticknor,  Mr.,  letter  of,  on  repudiation,  264. 


Toleration,  57  ;  sermon  on,  in  the  Temple 
Church,  90;  and  in  the  Cathedral  at 
Bristol,  194,  195;  Taylor's  apologue  in 
illustration  of,  195,  196. 

Traveling,  amusing  incidents  of,  165. 

Turtle,  stroking  a,  240 ;  riding  on  a,  351. 

Utilitarians,  296. 

Van  de  Weyer,  M.,  227 ;  letters  to,  271, 
286,  288 :  visit  of,  287 ;  letter  from,  re 
lating  to  M.  Robin,  353. 

Visitation  sermon,  161. 

Volunteers,  sermon  to,  69 

Vulgarity,  freedom  from ,  43. 

Wainwright,  Rev.  J.  M.,  of  New  York,  let 
ter  from,  269. 

Wealth,  views  of,  350. 

Webster,  Mr.  Daniel,  correspondence  with, 
251. 

Wenlock,  Lady,  letter  to,  202. 

Whishaw,  Mr.,  letter  to,  on  the  doath  of 
Homer,  154. 

Winchester  School,  17. 

Writings,  character  and  subjects  of  his, 
37-43. 

York,  residence  near,  104  ;  streets  of,  105  ; 
the  assizes  at,  170,  179 ;  sermons  preach 
ed  at  the  Cathedral,  179. 


END    OF    VOLUME    I. 


OF   CALIFORNIA    TT-- 


J  •* 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


